that word is understood Affliction for Sinne yet the Right of Afflicting is not alwayes derived from mens Sinne but from Gods Power This question Why Evill men often Prosper and Good men suffer Adversity has been much disputed by the Antient and is the same with this of ours by what Right God dispenseth the Prosperities and Adversities of this life and is of that difficulty as it hath shaken the faith not onely of the Vulgar but of Philosophers and which is more of the Saints concerning the Divine Providence How Good saith David is the God of Israel to those that are Upright in Heart and yet my feet were almost gone my treadings had well-nigh slipt for I was grieved at the Wicked when I saw the Ungodly in such Prosperity And Job how earnestly does he expostulate with God for the many Afflictions he suffered notwithstanding his Righteousnesse This question in the case of Job is decided by God himselfe not by arguments derived from Job's Sinne but his own Power For whereas the friends of Job drew their arguments from his Affliction to his Sinne and he defended himselfe by the conscience of his Innocence God himselfe taketh up the matter and having justified the Affliction by arguments drawn from his Power such as this Where wast thou when I layd the foundations of the earth and the like both approved Job's Innocence and reproved the Erroneous doctrine of his friends Conformable to this doctrine is the sentence of our Saviour concerning the man that was born Blind in these words Neither hath this man sinned nor his fathers but that the works of God might be made manifest in him And though it be said That Death entred into the world by sinne by which is meant that if Adam had never sinned he had never dyed that is never suffered any separation of his soule from his body it follows not thence that God could not justly have Afflicted him though he had not Sinned as well as he afflicteth other living creatures that cannot sinne Having spoken of the Right of Gods Soveraignty as grounded onely on Nature we are to consider next what are the Divine Lawes or Dictates of Naturall Reason which Lawes concern either the naturall Duties of one man to another or the Honour naturally due to our Divine Soveraign The first are the same Lawes of Nature of which I have spoken already in the 14. and 15. Chapters of this Treatise namely Equity Justice Mercy Humility and the rest of the Morall Vertues It remaineth therefore that we consider what Praecepts are dictated to men by their Naturall Reason onely without other word of God touching the Honour and Worship of the Divine Majesty Honour consisteth in the inward thought and opinion of the Power and Goodnesse of another and therefore to Honour God is to think as Highly of his Power and Goodnesse as is possible And of that opinion the externall signes appearing in the Words and Actions of men are called Worship which is one part of that which the Latines understand by the word Cultus For Cultus signifieth properly and constantly that labour which a man bestowes on any thing with a purpose to make benefit by it Now those things whereof we make benefit are either subject to us and the profit they yeeld followeth the labour we bestow upon them as a naturall effect or they are not subject to us but answer our labour according to their own Wills In the first sense the labour bestowed on the Earth is called Culture and the education of Children a Culture of their mindes In the second sense where mens wills are to be wrought to our purpose not by Force but by Compleasance it signifieth as much as Courting that is a winning of favour by good offices as by praises by acknowledging their Power and by whatsoever is pleasing to them from whom we look for any benefit And this is properly Worship in which sense Publicola is understood for a Worshipper of the People and Cultus Dei for the Worship of God From internall Honour consisting in the opinion of Power and Goodnesse arise three Passions Love which hath reference to Goodnesse and Hope and Fear that relate to Power And three parts of externall worship Praise Magnifying and Blessing The subject of Praise being Goodnesse the subject of Magnifying and Blessing being Power and the effect thereof Felicity Praise and Magnifying are signified both by Words and Actions By Words when we say a man is Good or Great By Actions when we thank him for his Bounty and obey his Power The opinion of the Happinesse of another can onely be expressed by words There be some signes of Honour both in Attributes and Actions that be Naturally so as amongst Attributes Good Just Liberall and the like and amongst Actions Prayers Thanks and Obedience Others are so by Institution or Custome of men and in some times and places are Honourable in others Dishonourable in others Indifferent such as are the Gestures in Salutation Prayer and Thanksgiving in different times and places differently used The former is Naturall the later Arbitrary Worship And of Arbitrary Worship there bee two differences For sometimes it is a Commanded sometimes Voluntary Worship Commanded when it is such as hee requireth who is Worshipped Free when it is such as the Worshipper thinks fit When it is Commanded not the words or gesture but the obedience is the Worship But when Free the Worship consists in the opinion of the beholders for if to them the words or actions by which we intend honour seem ridiculous and tending to contumely they are no Worship because no signes of Honour and no signes of Honour because a signe is not a signe to him that giveth it but to him to whom it is made that is to the spectator Again there is a Publique and a Private Worship Publique is the Worship that a Common-wealth performeth as one Person Private is that which a Private person exhibiteth Publique in respect of the whole Common-wealth is Free but in respect of Particular men it is not so Private is in secret Free but in the sight of the multitude it is never without some Restraint either from the Lawes or from the Opinion of men which is contrary to the nature of Liberty The End of Worship amongst men is Power For where a man seeth another worshipped he supposeth him powerfull and is the readier to obey him which makes his Power greater But God has no Ends the worship we do him proceeds from our duty and is directed according to our capacity by those rules of Honour that Reason dictateth to be done by the weak to the more potent men in hope of benefit for fear of dammage or in thankfulnesse for good already received from them That we may know what worship of God is taught us by the light of Nature I will begin with his Attributes Where First it is manifest we
bee Lawes and publike Officers armed to revenge all injuries shall bee done him what opinion he has of his fellow subjects when he rides armed of his fellow Citizens when he locks his dores and of his children and servants when he locks his chests Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions as I do by my words But neither of us accuse mans nature in it The Desires and other Passions of man are in themselves no Sin No more are the Actions that proceed from those Passions till they know a Law that forbids them which till Lawes be made they cannot know nor can any Law be made till they have agreed upon the Person that shall make it It may peradventure be thought there was never such a time nor condition of warre as this and I believe it was never generally so over all the world but there are many places where they live so now For the savage people in many places of America except the government of small Families the concord whereof dependeth on naturall lust have no government at all and live at this day in that brutish manner as I said before Howsoever it may be perceived what manner of life there would be where there were no common Power to feare by the manner of life which men that have formerly lived under a peacefull government use to degenerate into in a civill Warre But though there had never been any time wherein particular men were in a condition of warre one against another yet in all times Kings and Persons of Soveraigne authority because of their Independency are in continuall jealousies and in the state and posture of Gladiators having their weapons pointing and their eyes fixed on one another that is their Forts Garrisons and Guns upon the Frontiers of their Kingdomes and continuall Spyes upon their neighbours which is a posture of War But because they uphold thereby the Industry of their Subjects there does not follow from it that misery which accompanies the Liberty of particular men To this warre of every man against every man this also is consequent that nothing can be Unjust The notions of Right and Wrong Justice and Injustice have there no place Where there is no common Power there is no Law where no Law no Injustice Force and Fraud are in warre the two Cardinall vertues Justice and Injustice are none of the Faculties neither of the Body nor Mind If they were they might be in a man that were alone in the world as well as his Senses and Passions They are Qualities that relate to men in Society not in Solitude It is consequent also to the same condition that there be no Propriety no Dominion no Mine and Thine distinct but onely that to be every mans that he can get and for so long as he can keep it And thus much for the ill condition which man by meer Nature is actually placed in though with a possibility to come out of it consisting partly in the Passions partly in his Reason The Passions that encline men to Peace are Feare of Death Desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living and a Hope by their Industry to obtain them And Reason suggesteth convenient Articles of Peace upon which men may be drawn to agreement These Articles are they which otherwise are called the Lawes of Nature whereof I shall speak more particularly in the two following Chapters CHAP. XIV Of the first and sââ¦cond NATURALL LAWES and of CONTRACTS THe RIGHT OF NATURE which Writers commonly call Jus Naturale is the Liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himselfe for the preservation of his own Nature that is to say of his own Life and consequently of doing any thing which in his own Judgement and Reason hee shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto By LIBERTY is understood according to the proper signification of the word the absence of externall Impediments which Impediments may oft take away part of a mans power to do what hee would but cannot hinder him from using the power left him according as his judgement and reason shall dictate to him A LAW OF NATURE Lex Naturalis is a Precept or generall Rule found out by Reason by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life or taketh away the means of preserving the same and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved For though they that speak of this subject use to confound Jus and Lex Right and Law yet they ought to be distinguished because RIGHT consisteth in liberty to do or to forbeare Whereas LAW determineth and bindeth to one of them so that Law and Right differ as much as Obligation and Liberty which in one and the same matter are inconsistent And because the condition of Man as hath been declared in the precedent Chapter is a condition of Warre of every one against every one in which case every one is governed by his own Reason and there is nothing he can make use of that may not be a help unto him in preserving his life against his enemyes It followeth that in such a condition every man has a Right to every thing even to one anothers body And therefore as long as this naturall Right of every man to every thing endureth there can be no security to any man how strong or wise soever he be of living out the time which Nature ordinarily alloweth men to live And consequently it is a precept or generall rule of Reason That every man ought to endeavour Peace as farre as he has hope of obtaining it and when he cannot obtain it that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of Warre The first branch of which Rule containeth the first and Fundamentall Law of Nature which is to seek Peace and follow it The Second the summe of the Right of Nature which is By all means we can to defend our selves From this Fundamentall Law of Nature by which men are commanded to endeavour Peace is derived this second Law That a man be willing when others are so too as farre-forth as for Peace and defence of himselfe he shall think it necessary to lay down this right to all things and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himselfe For as long as every man holdeth this Right of doing any thing he liketh so long are all men in the condition of Warre But if other men will not lay down their Right as well as he then there is no Reason for any one to devest himselfe of his For that were to expose himselfe to Prey which no man is bound to rather than to dispose himselfe to Peace This is that Law of the Gospell Whatsoever you require that others should do to you that do ye to them And that Law of all men Quod tibi fieri non vis
a diversity of Nature rising from their diversity of Affections not unlike to that we see in stones brought together for building of an Aedifice For as that stone which by the asperity and irregularity of Figure takes more room from others than it selfe fills and for the hardnesse cannot be easily made plain and thereby hindereth the building is by the builders cast away as unprofitable and troublesome so also a man that by asperity of Nature will strive to retain those things which to himselfe are superfluous and to others necessary and for the stubbornness of his Passions cannot be corrected is to be left or cast out of Society as combersome thereunto For seeing every man not onely by Right but also by necessity of Nature is supposed to endeavour all he can to obtain that which is necessary for his conservation He that shall oppose himselfe against it for things superfluous is guilty of the warre that thereupon is to follow and therefore doth that which is contrary to the fundamentall Law of Nature which commandeth to seek Peace The observers of this Law may be called SOCIABLE the Latines call them Commodi The contrary Stubborn Insociable Froward Intractable A sixth Law of Nature is this That upon caution of the Future time a man ought to pardon the offences past of them that repenting desire it For PARDON is nothing but granting of Peace which though granted to them that persevere in their hostility be not Peace but Feare yet not granted to them that give caution of the Future time is signe of an aversion to Peace and therefore contrary to the Law of Nature A seventh is That in Revenges that is retribution of Evil for Evil Men look not at the greatnesse of the evill past but the greatnesse of the good to follow Whereby we are forbidden to inflict punishment with any other designe than for correction of the offender or direction of others For this Law is consequent to the next before it that commandeth Pardon upon security of the Future time Besides Revenge without respect to the Example and profit to come is a triumph or glorying in the hurt of another tending to no end for the End is alwayes somewhat to Come and glorying to no end is vain-glory and contrary to reason and to hurt without reason tendeth to the introduction of Warre which is against the Law of Nature and is commonly stiled by the name of Cruelty And because all signes of hatred or contempt provoke to fight insomuch as most men choose rather to hazard their life than not to be revenged we may in the eighth place for a Law of Nature set down this Precept That no man by deed word countenance or gesture declare Hatred or Contempt of another The breach of which Law is commonly called Contumely The question who is the better man has no place in the condition of meer Nature where as has been shewn before all men are equall The inequallity that now is has bin introduced by the Lawes civill I know that Aristotle in the first booke of his Politiques for a foundation of his doctrine maketh men by Nature some more worthy to Command meaning the wiser sort such as he thought himselfe to be for his Philosophy others to Serve meaning those that had strong bodies but were not Philosophers as he as if Master and Servant were not introduced by consent of men but by difference of Wit which is not only against reason but also against experience For there are very few so foolish that had not rather governe themselves than be governed by others Nor when the wise in their own conceiâ⦠contend by force with them who distrust their owne wisdome do they alwaies or often or almost at any time get the Victory If Nature therefore have made men equall that equalitie is to be acknowledged or if Nature have made men unequall yet because men that think themselves equall will not enter into conditions of Peace but upon Equall termes such equalitie must be admitted And therefore for the ninth law of Nature I put this ' That every man acknowledge other for his Equall by Nature The breach of this Precept is Pride On this law dependeth another That at the entrance into conditions of Peace no man require to reserve to himselfe any Right which he is not content should be reserved to every one of the rest As it is necessary for all men that seek peace to lay down certaine Rights of Nature that is to say not to have libertie to do all they list so is it necessarie for mans life to retaine some as right to governe their owne bodies enjoy aire water motion waies to go from place to place and all things else without which a man cannot live or not live well If in this case at the making of Peace men require for themselves that which they would not have to be granted to others they do contrary to the precedent law that commandeth the acknowledgment of naturall equalitie and therefore also against the law of Nature The observers of this law are those we call Modest and the breakers Arrogant men The Greeks call the violation of this law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is a desire of more than their share Also if a man be trusted to judge between man and man it is a precept of the Law of Nature that he deale Equally between them For without that the Controversies of men cannot be determined but by Warre He therefore that is partiall in judgment doth what in him lies to deterre men from the use of Judges and Arbitrators and consequently against the fundamentall Lawe of Nature is the cause of Warre The observance of this law from the equall distribution to each man of that which in reason belongeth to him is called EQUITY and as I have sayd before distributive Justice the violation Acception of persons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And from this followeth another law That such things as cannot be divided be enjoyed in Common if it can be and if the quantity of the thing permit without Stint otherwise Proportionably to the number of them that have Right For otherwise the distribution is Unequall and contrary to Equitie But some things there be that can neither be divided nor enjoyed in common Then The Law of Nature which prescribeth Equity requireth That the Entire Right or else making the use alternate the First Possession be determined by Lot For equall distribution is of the Law of Nature and other means of equall distribution cannot be imagined Of Lots there be two sorts Arbitrary and Naturall Arbitrary is that which is agreed on by the Competitors Naturall is either Primogeniture which the Greek calls ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies Given by Lot or First Seisure And therefore those things which cannot be enjoyed in common nor divided ought to be adjudged to the First Possessor and in some cases to the First-Borne
as acquired by Lot It is also a Law of Nature That all men that mediate Peace be allowed safe Conduct For the Law that commandeth Peace as the End commandeth Intercession as the Means and to Intercession the Means is safe Conduct And because though men be never so willing to observe these Lawes there may neverthelesse arise questions concerning a mans action First whether it were done or not done Secondly if done whether against the Law or not against the Law the former whereof is called a question Of Fact the later a question Of Right therefore unlesse the parties to the question Covenant mutually to stand to the sentence of another they are as farre from Peace as ever This other to whose Sentence they submit is called an ARBITRATOR And therefore it is of the Law of Nature That they that are at controversie submit their Right to the judgement of an Arbitrator And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own benefit no man is a fit Arbitrator in his own cause and if he were never so fit yet Equity allowing to each party equall benefit if one be admitted to be Judge the other is to be admitted also so the controversie that is the cause of War remains against the Law of Nature For the same reason no man in any Cause ought to be received for Arbitrator to whom greater profit or honour or pleasure apparently ariseth out of the victory of one party than of the other for hee hath taken though an unavoydable bribe yet a bribe and no man can be obliged to trust him And thus also the controversie and the condition of War remaineth contrary to the Law of Nature And in a controversie of Fact the Judge being to give no more credit to one than to the other if there be no other Arguments must give credit to a third or to a third and fourth or more For else the question is undecided and left to force contrary to the Law of Nature These are the Lawes of Nature dictating Peace for a means of the conservation of men in multitudes and which onely concern the doctrine of Civill Society There be other things tending to the destruction of particular men as Drunkenness and all other parts of Intemperance which may therefore also be reckoned amongst those things which the Law of Nature hath forbidden but are not necessary to be mentioned nor are pertinent enough to this place And though this may seem too subtile a deduction of the Lawes of Nature to be taken notice of by all men whereof the most part are too busie in getting food and the rest too negligent to understand yet to leave all men unexcusable they have been contracted into one easie sum intelligible even to the meanest capacity and that is Do not that to another which thou wouldest not have done to thy selfe which sheweth him that he has no more to do in learning the Lawes of Nature but when weighing the actions of other men with his own they seem too heavy to put them into the other part of the ballance and his own into their place that his own passions and selfe-love may adde nothing to the weight and then there is none of these Lawes of Nature that will not appear unto him very reasonable The Lawes of Nature oblige in foro interno that is to say they bind to a desire they should take place but in foro externo that is to the putting them in act not alwayes For he that should be modest and tractable and performe all he promises in such time and place where no man els should do so should but make himselfe a prey to others and procure his own certain ruine contrary to the ground of all Lawes of Nature which tend to Natures preservation And again he that having sufficient Security that others shall observe tââ¦e same Lawes towards him observes them not himselfe seeketh not Peace but War consequently the destruction of his Nature by Violence And whatsoever Lawes bind in foro interno may be broken not onely by a fact contrary to the Law but also by a fact according to it in case a man think it contrary For though his Action in this case be according to the Law yet his Purpose was against the Law which where the Obligation is in foro interno is a breach The Lawes of Nature are Immutable and Eternall For Injustice Ingratitude Arrogance Pride Iniquity Acception of persons and the rest can never be made lawfull For it can never be that Warre shall preserve life and Peace destroy it The sames Lawes because they oblige onely to a desire and endeavour I mean an unfeigned and constant endeavour are easie to be observed For in that they require nothing but endeavour he that endeavoureth their performance fulfilleth them and he that fulfilleth the Law is Just. And the Science of them is the true and onely Moral Philosophy For Morall Philosophy is nothing else but the Science of what is Good and Evill in the conversation and Society of man-kind Good and Evill are names that signifie our Appetites and Aversions which in different tempers customes and doctrines of men are different And divers men differ not onely in their Judgement on the senses of what is pleasant and unpleasant to the tast smell hearing touch and sight but also of what is conformable or disagreeable to Reason in the actions of common life Nay the same man in divers times differs from himselfe and one time praiseth that is calleth Good what another time he dispraiseth and calleth Evil From whence arise Disputes Controversies and at last War And therefore so long a man is in the condition of meer Nature which is a condition of War as private Appetite is the measure of Good and Evill And consequently all men agree on this that Peace is Good and therefore also the way or means of Peace which as I have shewed before are Justice Gratitude Modesty Equity Mercy the rest of the Laws of Nature are good that is to say Morall Vertues and their contrarie Vices Evill Now the science of Vertue and Vice is Morall Philosophie and therfore the true Doctrine of the Lawes of Nature is the true Morall Philosophie But the Writers of Morall Philosophie though they acknowledge the same Vertues and Vices Yet not seeing wherein consisted their Goodnesse nor that they come to be praised as the meanes of peaceable sociable and comfortable living place them in a mediocrity of passions as if not the Cause but the Degree of daring made Fortitude or not the Cause but the Quantity of a gift made Liberality These dictates of Reason men use to call by the name of Lawes but improperly for they are but Conclusions or Theoremes concerning what conduceth to the conservation and defence of themselves wheras Law properly is the word of him that by right hath command over others But
amongst them such as wish not his prosperity A man that doth his businesse by the help of many and prudent Counsellours with every one consulting apart in his proper element does it best as he that useth able Seconds at Tennis play placed in their proper stations He does next best that useth his own Judgement only as he that has no Second at all But he that is carried up and down to his businesse in a framed Counsell which cannot move but by the plurality of consenting opinions the execution whereof is commonly out of envy or interest retarded by the part dissenting does it worst of all and like one that is carried to the ball though by good Players yet in a Wheele-barrough or other frame heavy of it self and retarded also by the inconcurrent judgements and endeavours of them that drive it and so much the more as they be more that set their hands to it and most of all when there is one or more amongst them that desire to have him lose And though it be true that many eys see more then one yet it is not to be understood of many Counsellours but then only when the finall Resolution is in one man Otherwise because many eyes see the same thing in divers lines and are apt to look asquint towards their private benefit they that desire not to misse their marke though they look about with two eyes yet they never ayme but with one And therefore no great Popular Common-wealth was ever kept up but either by a forraign Enemy that united them or by the reputation of some one eminent Man amongst them or by the secret Counsell of a few or by the mutuall feare of equall factions and not by the open Consultations of the Assembly And as for very little Common-wealths be they Popular or Monarchicall there is no humane wisdome can uphold them longer then the Jealousy lasteth of their potent Neighbours CHAP. XXVI Of CIVILL LAWES BY CIVILL LAWES I understand the Lawes that men are therefore bound to observe because they are Members not of this or that Common-wealth in particular but of a Common-wealth For the knowledge of particular Lawes belongeth to them that professe the study of the Lawes of their severall Countries but the knowledge of Civill Law in generall to any man The antient Law of Rome was called their Civil Law from the word Civitas which signifies a Common-wealth And those Countries which having been under the Roman Empire and governed by that Law retaine still such part thereof as they think fit call that part the Civill Law to distinguish it from the rest of their own Civill Lawes But that is not it I intend to speak of here my designe being not to shew what is Law here and there but what is Law as Plato Aristotle Cicero and divers others have done without taking upon them the profession of the study of the Law And first it is manifest that Law in generall is not Counsell but Command nor a Command of any man to any man but only of him whose Command is addressed to one formerly obliged to obey him And as for Civill Law it addeth only the name of the person Commanding which is Persona Civitatis the Person of the Common-wealth Which considered I define Civill Law in this manner CIVILL LAW Is to every Subject those Rules which the Common-wealth hath Commanded him by Word Writing or other sufficient Sign of the Will to make use of for the Distinction of Right and Wrong that is to say of what is contrary and what is not contrary to the Rule In which definition there is nothing that is not at first sight evident For every man seeth that some Lawes are addressed to all the Subjects in generall some to particular Provinces some to particular Vocations and some to particular Men and are therefore Lawes to every of those to whom the Command is directed and to none else As also that Lawes are the Rules of Just and Unjust nothing being reputed Unjust that is not contrary to some Law Likewise that none can make Lawes but the Common-wealth because our Subjection is to the Common-wealth only and that Commands are to be signified by sufficient Signs because a man knows not otherwise how to obey them And therefore whatsoever can from this definition by necessary consequence be deduced ought to be acknowledged for truth Now I deduce from it this that followeth 1 The Legislator in all Common-wealths is only the Soveraign be he one Man as in a Monarchy or one Assembly of men as in a Democracy or Aristocracy For the Legislator is he that maketh the Law And the Common-wealth only praescribes and commandeth the observation of those rules which we call Law Therefore the Common-wealth is the Legislator But the Common-wealth is no Person nor has capacity to doe any thing but by the Representative that is the Soveraign and therefore the Soveraign is the sole Legislator For the same reason none can abrogate a Law made but the Soveraign because a Law is not abrogated but by another Law that forbiddeth it to be put in execution 2 The Soveraign of a Common-wealth be it an Assembly or one Man is not Subject to the Civill Lawes For having power to make and repeale Lawes he may when he pleaseth free himselfe from that subjection by repealing those Lawes that trouble him and making of new and consequently he was free before For he is free that can be free when he will Nor is it possible for any person to be bound to himselfe because he that can bind can release and therefore he that is bound to himselfe onely is not bound 3. When long Use obtaineth the authority of a Law it is not the Length of Time that maketh the Authority but the Will of the Soveraign signified by his silence for Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent and it is no longer Law then the Soveraign shall be silent therein And therefore if the Soveraign shall have a question of Right grounded not upon his present Will but upon the Lawes formerly made the Length of Time shal bring no prejudice to his Right but the question shal be judged by Equity For many unjust Actions and unjust Sentences go uncontrolled a longer time than any mancan remember And our Lawyers account no Customes Law but such as are reasonable and that evill Customes are to be abolished But the Judgement of what is reasonable and of what is to be abolished belongeth to him that maketh the Law which is the Soveraign Assembly or Monarch 4. The Law of Nature and the Civill Law contain each other and are of equall extent For the Lawes of Nature which consist in Equity Justice Gratitude and other morall Vertues on these depending in the condition of meer Nature as I have said before in the end of the 15th Chapter are not properly Lawes but qualities that dispose men to peace and to obedience When a Common-wealth
is once settled then are they actually Lawes and not before as being then the commands of the Common-wealth and therefore also Civill Lawes For it is the Soveraign Power that obliges men to obey them For in the differences of private men to declare what is Equity what is Justice and what is morall Vertue and to make them binding there is need of the Ordinances of Soveraign Power and Punishments to be ordaine d for such as shall break them which Ordinances are therefore part of the Civill Law The Law of Nature therefore is a part of the Civill Law in all Common-wealths of the world Reciprocally also the Civill Law is a part of the Dictates of Nature For Justice that is to say Performance of Covenant and giving to every man his own is a Dictate of the Law of Nature But every subject in a Common-wealth hath covenanted to obey the Civill Law either one with another as when they assemble to make a common Representative or with the Representative it selfe one by one when subdued by the Sword they promise obedience that they may receive life And therefore Obedience to the Civill Law is part also of the Law of Nature Civill and Naturall Law are not different kinds but different parts of Law whereof one part being written is called Civill the other unwritten Naturall But the Right of Nature that is the naturall Liberty of man may by the Civill Law be abridged and restrained nay the end of making Lawes is no other but such Restraint without the which there cannot possibly be any Peace And Law was brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the naturall liberty of particular men in such manner as they might not hurt but assist one another and joyn together against a common Enemy 5. If the Soveraign of one Common-wealth subdue a People that have lived under other written Lawes and afterwards govern them by the same Lawes by which they were governed before yet those Lawes are the Civill Lawes of the Victor and not of the Vanquished Common-wealth For the Legislator is he not by whose authority the Lawes were first made but by whose authority they now continue to be Lawes And therefore where there be divers Provinces within the Dominion of a Common-wealth and in those Provinces diversity of Lawes which commonly are called the Customes of each severall Province we are not to understand that such Customes have their force onely from Length of Time but that they were antiently Lawes written or otherwise made known for the Constitutions and Statutes of their Soveraigns and are now Lawes not by vertue of the Praescription of time but by the Constitutions of their present Soveraigns But if an unwritten Law in all the Provinces of a Dominion shall be generally observed and no iniquity appear in the use thereof that Law can be no other but a Law of Nature equally obliging all man-kind 6. Seeing then all Lawes written and unwritten have their Authority and force from the Will of the Common-wealth that is to say from the Will of the Representative which in a Monarchy is the Monarch and in other Common-wealths the Soveraign Assembly a man may wonder from whence proceed such opinions as are found in the Books of Lawyers of eminence in severall Common-wealths directly or by consequence making the Legislative Power depend on private men or subordinate Judges As for example That the Common Law hath no Controuler but the Parlament which is true onely where a Parlament has the Soveraign Power and cannot be assembled nor dissolved but by their own discretion For if there be a right in any else to dissolve them there is a right also to controule them and consequently to controule their controulings And if there be no such right then the Controuler of Lawes is not Parlamentum but Rex in Parlamento And were a Parlament is Soveraign if it should assemble never so many or so wise men from the Countries subject to them for whatsoever cause yet there is no man will believe that such an Assembly hath thereby acquired to themselves a Legislative Power Item that the two arms of a Common-wealth are Force and Justice the first whereof is in the King the other deposited in the hands of the Parlament As if a Common-wealth could consist where the Force were in any hand which Justice had not the Authority to command and govern 7. That Law can never be against Reason our Lawyers are agreed and that not the Letter that is every construction of it but that which is according to the Intention of the Legislator is the Law And it is true but the doubt is of whose Reason it is that shall be received for Law It is not meant of any private Reason for then there would be as much contradiction in the Lawes as there is in the Schooles nor yet as Sr. Ed. Coke makes it an Artificiall perfection of Reason gotten by long study observation and experience as his was For it is possible long study may encrease and confirm erroneous Sentences and where men build on false grounds the more they build the greater is the ruine and of those that study and observe with equall time and diligence the reasons and resolutions are and must remain discordant and therefore it is not that Juris prudentia or wisedome of subordinate Judges but the Reason of this our Artificiall Man the Common-wealth and his Command that maketh Law And the Common-wealth being in their Representative but one Person there cannot easily arise any contradiction in the Lawes and when there doth the same Reason is able by interpretation or alteration to take it away In all Courts of Justice the Soveraign which is the Person of the Common-wealth is he that Judgeth The subordinate Judge ought to have regard to the reason which moved his Soveraign to make such Law that his Sentence may be according thereunto which then is his Soveraigns Sentence otherwise it is his own and an unjust one 8. From this that the Law is a Command and a Command consisteth in declaration or manifestation of the will of him that commandeth by voyce writing or some other sufficient argument of the same we may understand that the Command of the Common-wealth is Law onely to those that have means to take notice of it Over naturall fooles children or mad-men there is no Law no more than over brute beasts nor are they capable of the title of just or unjust because they had never power to make any covenant or to understand the consequences thereof and consequently never took upon them to authorise the actions of any Soveraign as they must do that make to themselves a Common-wealth And as those from whom Nature or Accident hath taken away the notice of all Lawes in generall so also every man from whom any accident not proceeding from his own default hath taken away the means to take notice of any particular Law is excused if
not this revelation nor were yet in being yet they are a party to the Covenant and bound to obey what Abraham should declare to them for Gods Law which they could not be but in vertue of the obedience they owed to their Parents who if they be Subject to no other earthly power as here in the case of Abraham have Soveraign power over their children and servants Againe where God saith to Abraham In thee shall all Nations of the earth be blessed For I know thou wilt command thy children and thy house after thee to keep the way of the Lord and to observe Righteousnesse and Judgement it is manifest the obedience of his Family who had no Revelation depended on their former obligation to obey their Soveraign At Mount Sinai Moses only went up to God the people were forbidden to approach on paine of death yet were they bound to obey all that Moses declared to them for Gods Law Upon what ground but on this submission of their own Speak thou to us and we will heare thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye By which two places it sufficiently appeareth that in a Common-wealth a subject that has no certain and assured Revelation particularly to himself concerning the Will of God is to obey for such the Command of the Common-wealth for if men were at liberty to take for Gods Commandements their own dreams and fancies or the dreams and fancies of private men scarce two men would agree upon what is Gods Commandement and yet in respect of them every man would despise the Commandements of the Common-wealth I conclude therefore that in all things not contrary to the Morall Law that is to say to the Law of Nature all Subjects are bound to obey that for divine Law which is declared to be so by the Lawes of the Common-wealth Which also is evident to any mans reason for whatsoever is not against the Law of Nature may be made Law in the name of them that have the Soveraign power and there is no reason men should be the lesse obliged by it when t is propounded in the name of God Besides there is no place in the world where men are permitted to pretend other Commandements of God than are declared for such by the Common-wealth Christian States punish those that revolt from Christian Religion and all other States those that set up any Religion by them forbidden For in whatsoever is not regulated by the Common-wealth t is Equity which is the Law of Nature and therefore an eternall Law of God that every man equally enjoy his liberty There is also another distinction of Laws into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall but I could never see in any Author what a Fundamentall Law signifieth Neverthelesse one may very reasonably distinguish Laws in that manner For a Fundamentall Law in every Common-wealth is that which being taken away the Common-wealth faileth and is utterly dissolved as a building whose Foundation is destroyed And therefore a Fundamentall Law is that by which Subjects are bound to uphold whatsoever power is given to the Soveraign whether a Monarch or a Soveraign Assembly without which the Common-wealth cannot stand such as is the power of War and Peace of Judicature of Election of Officers and of doing whatsoever he shall think necessary for the Publique good Not Fundamentall is that the abrogating whereof draweth not with it the dissolution of the Common-Wealth such as are the Lawes concerning Controversies between subject and subject Thus much of the Division of Lawes I find the words Lex Civilis and Jus Civile that is to say Law and Right Civil promiscuously used for the same thing even in the most learned Authors which neverthelesse ought not to be so For Right is Liberty namely that Liberty which the Civil Law leaves us But Civill Law is an Obligation and takes from us the Liberty which the Law of Nature gave us Nature gave a Right to every man to secure himselfe by his own strength and to invade a suspected neighbour by way of prevention but the Civill Law takes away that Liberty in all cases where the protection of the Law may be safely stayd for Insomuch as Lex and Jus are as different as Obligation and Liberty Likewise Lawes and Charters are taken ãâã for the same thing Yet Charters are Donations of the Soveraign and not Lawes but exemptions from Law The phrase of a Law is Jubeo Injungo I Command and Enjoyn the phrase of a Charter is Dedi Concessi I have Given I have Granted but what is given or granted to a man is not forced upon him by a Law A Law may be made to bind All the Subjects of a Common-wealth a Liberty or Charter is only to One man or some One part of the people For to say all the people of a Common-wealth have Liberty in any case whatsoever is to say that in such case there hath been no Law made or else having been made is now abrogated CHAP. XXVII Of CRIMES EXCUSES and EXTENUATIONS A Sinne is not onely a Transgression of a Law but also any Contempt of the Legislator For such Contempt is a breach of all his Lawes at once And therefore may consist not onely in the Commission of a Fact or in the Speaking of Words by the Lawes forbidden or in the Omission of what the Law commandeth but also in the Intention or purpose to transgresse For the purpose to breake the Law is some degree of Contempt of him to whom it belongeth to see it executed To be delighted in the Imagination onely of being possessed of another mans goods servants or wife without any intention to take them from him by force or fraud is no breach of the Law that sayth Thou shalt not covet nor is the pleasure a man may have in imagining or dreaming of the death of him from whose life he expecteth nothing but dammage and displeasure a Sinne but the resolving to put some Act in execution that tendeth thereto For to be pleased in the fiction of that which would please a man if it were reall is a Passion so adhaerent to the Nature both of man and every other living creature as to make it a Sinne were to make Sinne of being a man The consideration of this has made me think them too severe both to themselves and others that maintain that the First motions of the mind though checked with the fear of God be Sinnes But I confesse it is safer to erre on that hand than on the other A CRIME is a sinne consisting in the Committing by Deed or Word of that which the Law forbiddeth or the Omission of what it hath commanded So that every Crime is a sinne but not every sinne a Crime To intend to steale or kill is a sinne though it never appeare in Word or Fact for God that seeth the thoughts of man can lay it to his charge but till it appear by some thing
done or said by which the intention may be argued by a humane Judge it hath not the name of Crime which distinction the Greeks observed in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã wherof the former which is translated Sinne signifieth any swarving from the Law whatsoever but the two later which are translated Crime signifie that sinne onely whereof one man may accuse another But of Intentions which never appear by any outward act there is no place for humane accusation In like manner the Latines by Peccatum which is Sinne signifie all manner of deviation from the Law but by Crimen which word they derive from Cerno which signifies to perceive they mean onely such sinnes as may be made appear before a Judge and therfore are not meer Intentions From this relation of Sinne to the Law and of Crime to the Civill Law may be inferred First that where Law ceaseth Sinne ceaseth But because the Law of Nature is eternall Violation of Covenants Ingratitude Arrogance and all Facts contrary to any Morall vertue can never cease to be Sinne. Secondly that the Civill Law ceasing Crimes cease for there being no other Law remaining but that of Nature there is no place for Accusation every man being his own Judge and accused onely by his own Conscience and cleared by the Uprightnesse of his own Intention When therefore his Intention is Right his fact is no Sinne if otherwise his fact is Sinne but not Crime Thirdly That when the Soveraign Power ceaseth Crime also ceaseth for where there is no such Power there is no protection to be had from the Law and therefore every one may protect himself by his own power for no man in the Institution of Soveraign Power can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own body for the safety whereof all Soveraignty was ordained But this is to be understood onely of those that have not themselves contributed to the taking away of the Power that protected them for that was a Crime from the beginning The source of every Crime is some defect of the Understanding or some errour in Reasoning or some sudden force of the Passions Defect in the Understanding is Ignoranââ¦e in Reasoning Erroneous Opinion Again Ignorance is of three sorts of the Law and of the Soveraign and of the Penalty Ignorance of the Law of Nature Excuseth no man because every man that hath attained to the use of Reason is supposed to know he ought not to do to another what he would not have done to himselfe Therefore into what place soever a man shall come if he do any thing contrary to that Law it is a Crime If a man come from the Indies hither and perswade men here to receive a new Religion or teach them any thing that tendeth to disobedience of the Lawes of this Country though he be never so well perswaded of the truth of what he teacheth he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same not onely because his doctrine is false but also because he does that which he would not approve in another namely that comming from hence he should endeavour to alter the Religion there But ignorance of the Civill Law shall Excuse a man in a strange Country till it be declared to him because till then no Civill Law is binding In the like manner if the Civill Law of a mans own Country be not so sufficiently declared as he may know it if he will nor the Action against the Law of Nature the Ignorance is a good Excuse In other cases Ignorance of the Civill Law Excuseth not Ignorance of the Soveraign Power in the place of a mans ordinary residence Excuseth him not because he ought to take notice of the Power by which he hath been protected there Ignorance of the Penalty where the Law is declared Excuseth no man For in breaking the Law which without a fear of penalty to follow were not a Law but vain words he undergoeth the penalty though he know not what it is because whosoever voluntarily doth any action accepteth all the known consequences of it but Punishment is a known consequence of the violation of the Lawes in every Common-wealth which punishment if it be determined already by the Law he is subject to that if not then is he subject to Arbitrary punishment For it is reason that he which does Injury without other limitation than that of his own Will should suffer punishment without other limitation than that of his Will whose Law is thereby violated But when a penalty is either annexed to the Crime in the Law it selfe or hath been usually inflicted in the like cases there the Delinquent is Excused from a greater penalty For the punishment foreknown if not great enough to deterre men from the action is an invitement to it because when men compare the benefit of their Injustice with the harm of their punishment by necessity of Nature they choose that which appeareth best for themselves and therefore when they are punished more than the Law had formerly determined or more than others were punished for the same Crime it is the Law that tempted and deceiveth them No Law made after a Fact done can make it a Crime because if the Fact be against the Law of Nature the Law was before the Fact and a Positive Law cannot be taken notice of before it be made and therefore cannot be Obligatory But when the Law that forbiddeth a Fact is made before the Fact be done yet he that doth the Fact is lyable to the Penalty ordained after in case no lesser Penalty were made known before neither by Writing nor by Example for the reason immediatly before alledged From defect in Reasoning that is to say from Errour men are prone to violate the Lawes three wayes First by Presumption of false Principles as when men from having observed how in all places and in all ages unjust Actions have been authorised by the force and victories of those who have committed them and that potent men breaking through the Cob-web Lawes of their Country the weaker sort and those that have failed in their Enterprises have been esteemed the onely Criminals have thereupon taken for Principles and grounds of their Reasoning That Justice is but a vain word That whatsoever a man can get by his own Industry and hazard is his own That the Practice of all Nations cannot be unjust That Examples of former times are good Arguments of doing the like again and many more of that kind Which being granted no Act in it selfe can be a Crime but must be made so not by the Law but by the successe of them that commit it and the same Fact be vertuous or vicious as Fortune pleaseth so that what Marius makes a Crime Sylla shall make meritorious and Caesar the same Lawes standing turn again into a Crime to the perpetuall
contriving their Titles to save the People from the shame of receiving them To have a known Right to Soveraign Power is so popular a quality as he that has it needs no more for his own part to turn the hearts of his Subjects to him but that they see him able absolutely to govern his own Family Nor on the part of his enemies but a disbanding of their Armies For the greatest and most active part of Mankind has never hetherto been well contented with the present Concerning the Offices of one Soveraign to another which are comprehended in that Law which is commonly called the Law of Nations I need not say any thing in this place because the Law of Nations and the Law of Nature is the same thing And every Soveraign hath the same Right in procuring the safety of his People that any particular man can have in procuring the safety of his own Body And the same Law that diââ¦tateth to men that have no Civil Government what they ought to do and what to avoyd in regard of one another dictateth the same to Common-wealths that is to the Consciences of Soveraign Princes and Soveraign Assemblies there being no Court of Naturall Justice but in the Conscience onely where not Man but God raigneth whose Lawes such of them as oblige all Mankind in respect of God as he is the Author of Nature are Naturall and in respect of the same God as he is King of Kings are Lawes But of the Kingdome of God as King of Kings and as King also of a peculiar People I shall speak in the rest of this discourse CHAP. XXXI Of the KINGDOME OF GOD BY NATURE THat the condition of meer Nature that is to say of absolute Liberty such as is theirs that neither are Soveraigns nor Subjects is Anarchy and the condition of Warre That the Praecepts by which men are guided to avoyd that condition are the Lawes of Nature That a Common-wealth without Soveraign Power is but a word without substance and cannot stand That Subjects owe to Soveraigns simple Obedience in all things wherein their obedience is not repugnant to the Lawes of God I have sufficiently proved in that which I have already written There wants onely for the entire knowledge of Civill duty to know what are those Lawes of God For without that a man knows not when he is commanded any thing by the Civill Power whether it be contrary to the ââ¦aw of God or not and so either by too much civill obedience offends the Divine Majesty or through feare of offending God transgresses the commandements of the Common-wealth To avoyd both these Rocks it is necessary to know what are the Lawes Divine And seeing the knowledge of all Law dependeth on the knowledge of the Soveraign Power I shall say something in that which followeth of the KINGDOME OF GOD. God is King let the Earth rejoyce saith the Psalmist And again God is King though the Nations be angry and he that sitteth on the Cherubins though the earth be moved Whether men will or not they must be subject alwayes to the Divine Power By denying the Existence or Providence of God men may shake off their Ease but not their Yoke But to call this Power of God which extendeth it selfe not onely to Man but also to Beasts and Plants and Bodies inanimate by the name of Kingdome is but a metaphoricall use of the word For he onely is properly said to Raigne that governs his Subjects by his Word and by promise of Rewards to those that obey it and by threatning them with Punishment that obey it not Subjects therefore in the Kingdome of God are not Bodies Inanimate nor creatures Irrationall because they understand no Precepts as his Nor Atheists nor they that believe not that God has any care of the actions of mankind because they acknowledge no Word for his nor have hope of his rewards or fear of his threatnings They therefore that believe there is a God that goeverneth the world and hath given Praecepts and propounded Rewards and Punishments to Mankind are Gods Subjects all the rest are to be understood as Enemies To rule by Words requires that such Words be manifestly made known for else they are no Lawes For to the nature of Lawes belongeth a sufficient and clear Promulgation such as may take away the excuse of Ignorance which in the Lawes of men is but of one onely kind and that is Proclamation or Promulgation by the voyce of man But God declareth his Lawes three wayes by the Dictates of Naturall Reason by Revelation and by the Voyce of some man to whom by the operation of Miracles he procureth credit with the rest From hence there ariseth a triple Word of God Rational Sensible and Prophetique to which Correspondeth a triple Hearing Right Reason Sense Supernaturall and Faith As for Sense Supernaturall which consisteth in Revelation or Inspiration there have not been any Universall Lawes so given because God speaketh not in that manner but to particular persons and to divers men divers things From the difference between the other two kinds of Gods Word Rationall and Prophetique there may be attributed to God a twofold Kingdome Naturall and Prophetique Naturall wherein he governeth as many of Mankind as acknowledge his Providence by the naturall Dictates of Right Reason And Prophetique wherein having chosen out one peculiar Nation the Jewes for his Subjects he governed them and none but them not onely by naturall Reason but by Positive Lawes which he gave them by the mouths of his holy Prophets Of the Naturall Kingdome of God I intend to speak in this Chapter The Right of Nature whereby God reigneth over men and punisheth those that break his Lawes is to be derived not from his Creating them as if he required obedience as of Gratitude for his benefits but from his Irresistible Power I have formerly shewn how the Soveraign Right ariseth from Pact To shew how the same Right may arise from Nature requires no more but to shew in what case it is never taken away Seeing all men by Nature had Right to All things they had Right every one to reigne over all the rest But because this Right could not be obtained by force it concerned the safety of every one laying by that Right to set up men with Soveraign Authority by common consent to rule and defend them whereas if there had been any man of Power Irresistible there had been no reason why he should not by that Power have ruled and defended both himselfe and them according to his own discretion To those therefore whose Power is irresistible the dominion of all men adhaereth naturally by their excellence of Power and consequently it is from that Power that the Kingdome over men and the Right of afflicting men at his pleasure belongeth Naturally to God Almighty not as Creator and Gracious but as Omnipotent And though Punishment be due for Sinne onely because by
ought to attribute to him Existence For no man can have the will to honour that which he thinks not to have any Beeing Secondly that those Philosophers who sayd the World or the Soule of the World was God spake unworthily of him and denyed his Existence For by God is understood the cause of the World and to say the World is God is to say there is no cause of it that is no God Thirdly to say the World was not Created but Eternall seeing that which is Eternall has no cause is to deny there is a God Fourthly that they who attributing as they think Ease to God take from him the care of Man-kind take from him his Honour for it takes away mens love and fear of him which is the root of Honour Fifthly in those things that signifie Greatnesse and Power to say he is Finite is not to Honour him For it is not a signe of the Will to Honour God to attribute to him lesse than we can and Finite is lesse than we can because to Finite it is easie to adde more Therefore to attribute Figure to him is not Honour for all Figure is Finite Nor to say we conceive and imagine or have an Idea of him in our mind for whatsoever we conceive is Finite Nor to attribute to him Parts or Totality which are the Attributes onely of things Finite Nor to say he is in this or that Place for whatsoever is in Place is bounded and Finite Nor that he is Moved or Resteth for both these Attributes ascribe to him Place Nor that there be more Gods than one because it implies them all Finite for there cannot be more than one Infinite Nor to ascribe to him unlesse Metaphorically meaning not the Passion but the Effect Passions that partake of Griefe as Repentance Anger Mercy or of Want as Appetite Hope Desire or of any Passive faculty For Passion is Power limited by somewhat else And therefore when we ascribe to God a Will it is not to be understood as that of Man for a Rationall Appetite but as the Power by which he effecteth every thing Likewise when we attribute to him Sight and other acts of Sense as also Knowledge and Understanding which in us is nothing else but a tumult of the mind raised by externall things that presse the organicall parts of mans body For there is no such thing in God and being things that depend on naturall causes cannot be attributed to him Hee that will attribute to God nothing but what is warranted by naturall Reason must either use such Negative Attributes as Infinite Eternall Incomprehensible or Superlatives as Most High most Great and the like or Indefinite as Good Just Holy Creator and in such sense as if he meant not to declare what he is for that were to circumscribe him within the limits of our Fancy but how much wee admire him and how ready we would be to obey him which is a signe of Humility and of a Will to honour him as much as we can For there is but one Name to signifie our Conception of his Nature and that is I AM and but one Name of his Relation to us and that is God in which is contained Father King and Lord. Concerning the actions of Divine Worship it is a most generall Precept of Reason that they be signes of the Intention to Honour God such as are First Prayers For not the Carvers when they made Images were thought to make them Gods but the People that Prayed to them Secondly Thanksgiving which differeth from Prayer in Divine Worship no otherwise than that Prayers precede and Thanks succeed the benefit the end both of the one and the other being to acknowledge God for Author of all benefits as well past as future Thirdly Gifts that is to say Sacrifices and Oblations if they be of the best are signes of Honour for they are Thanksgivings Fourthly Not to swear by any but God is naturally a signe of Honour for it is a confession that God onely knoweth the heart and that no mans wit or strength can protect a man against Gods vengeance on the perjured Fifthly it is a part of Rationall Worship to speak Considerately of God for it argues a Fear of him and Fear is a confession of his Power Hence followeth That the name of God is not to be used rashly and to no purpose for that is as much as in Vain And it is to no purpose unlesse it be by way of Oath and by order of the Common-wealth to make Judgements certain or between Common-wealths to avoyd Warre And that disputing of Gods nature is contrary to his Honour For it is supposed that in this naturall Kingdome of God there is no other way to know any thing but by naturall Reason that is from the Principles of naturall Science which are so farre from teaching us any thing of Gods nature as they cannot teach us our own nature nor the nature of the smallest creature living And therefore when men out of the Principlès of naturall Reason dispute of the Attributes of God they but dishonour him For in the Attributes which we give to God we are not to consider the signification of Philosophicall Truth but the signification of Pious Intention to do him the greatest Honour we are able From the want of which consideration have proceeded the volumes of disputation about the Nature of God that tend not to his Honour but to the honour of our own wits and learning and are nothing else but inconsiderate and vain abuses of his Sacred Name Sixthly in Prayers Thanksgiving Offerings and Sacrifices it is a Dictate of naturall Reason that they be every one in his kind the best and most significant of Honour As for example that Prayers and Thanksgiving be made in Words and Phrases not sudden nor light nor Plebeian but beautifull and well composed For else we do not God as much honour as we can And therefore the Heathens did absurdly to worship Images for Gods But their doing it in Verse and with Musick both of Voyce and Instruments was reasonable Also that the Beasts they offered in sacrifice and the Gifts they offered and their actions in Worshipping were full of submission and commemorative of benefits received was according to reason as proceeding from an intention to honour him Seventhly Reason directeth not onely to worship God in Secret but also and especially in Publique and in the sight of men For without that that which in honour is most acceptable the procuring others to honour him is lost Lastly Obedience to his Lawes that is in this case to the Lawes of Nature is the greatest worship of all For as Obedience is more acceptable to God than Sacrifice so also to set light by his Commandements is the greatest of all contumelies And these are the Lawes of that Divine Worship which naturall Reason dictateth to private men But seeing a Common-wealth is but one Person it ought also to exhibite
and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament have had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God 1. in Moses and the Priests 2. in the man Christ and 3. in the Apostles and the successors to Apostolicall power For these three at several times did represent the person of God Moses and his successors the High Priests and Kings of Judah in the Old Testament Christ himself in the time he lived on earth and the Apostles and their successors from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on them to this day It is a question much disputed between the divers sects of Christian Religion From whence the Scriptures derive their Authority which question is also propounded sometimes in other terms as How wee know them to be the Word of God or Why we bââ¦leeve them to be so And the difficulty of resolving it ariseth chiefly from the impropernesse of the words wherein the question it self is couched For it is beleeved on all hands that the first and originall Author of them is God and consequently the question disputed is not that Again it is manifest that none can know they are Gods Word though all true Christians beleeve it but those to whom God himself hath revealed it supernaturally and therefore the question is not rightly moved of our Know edge of it Lastly when the question is propounded of our Beleefe because some are moved to beleeve for one and others for other reasons there can be rendred no one generall answer for them all The question truly stated is By what Authority they are made Law As far as they differ not from the Laws of Nature there is no doubt but they are the Law of God and carry their Authority with them legible to all men that have the use of naturall reason but this is no other Authority then that of all other Morall Doctrine consonant to Reason the Dictates whereof are Laws not made but Eternall If they be made Law by God himselfe they are of the nature of written Law which are Laws to them only to whom God hath so sufficiently published them as no man can excuse himself by saying he knew not they were his He therefore to whom God hath not supernaturally revealed that they are his nor that those that published them were sent by him is not obliged to obey them by any Authority but his whose Commands have already the force of Laws that is to say by any other Authority then that of the Common-wealth residing in the Soveraign who only has the Legislative power Again if it be not the Legislative Authority of the Common-wealth that giveth them the force of Laws it must bee some other Authority derived from God either private or publique if private it obliges onely him to whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveale it For if every man should be obliged to take for Gods Law what particular men on pretence of private Inspiration or Revelation should obtrude upon him in such a number of men that out of pride and ignorance take their own Dreams and extravagant Fancies and Madnesse for testimonies of Gods Spirit or out of ambition pretend to such Divine testimonies falsely and contrary to their own consciences it were impossible that any Divine Law should be acknowledged If publique it is the Authority of the Common-wealth or of the Church But the Church if it be one person is the same thing with a Common-wealth of Christians called a Common-wealth because it consisteth of men united in one person their Soveraign and a Church because it consisteth in Christian men united in one Christian Soveraign But if the Church be not one person then it hath no authority at all it can neither command nor doe any action at all nor is capable of having any power or right to any thing nor has any Will Reason nor Voice for all these qualities are personall Now if the whole number of Christians be not contained in one Common-wealth they are not one person nor is there an Universall Church that hath any authority over them and therefore the Scriptures are not made Laws by the Universall Church or if it bee one Common-wealth then all Christian Monarchs and States are private persons and subject to bee judged deposed and punished by an Universall Soveraigne of all Christendome So that the question of the Authority of the Scriptures is reduced to this Whether Christian Kings and the Soveraigne Assemblies in Christian Common-wealths be absolute in their own Territories immediately under God or subject to one Vicar of Christ constituted of the Vniversall Church to bee judged condemned deposed and put to death as hee shall think expedient or necessary for the common good Which question cannot bee resolved without a more particular consideration of the Kingdome of God from whence also wee are to judge of the Authority of Interpreting the Scripture For whosoever hath a lawfull power over any Writing to make it Law hath the power also to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the same CHAP. XXXIV Of the Signification of SPIRIT ANGEL and INSPIRATION in the Books of Holy Scripture SEeing the foundation of all true Ratiocination is the constant Signification of words which in the Doctrine following dependeth not as in naturall science on the Will of the Writer nor as in common conversation on vulgar use but on the sense they carry in the Scripture It is necessary before I proceed any further to determine out of the Bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may render what I am to inferre upon them obscure or disputable I will begin with the words BODY and SPIRIT which in the language of the Schools are termed Substances Corporeall and Incorporeall The Word Body in the most generall acceptation signifieth that which filleth or occupyeth some certain room or imagined place and dependeth not on the imagination but is a reall part of that we call the Vniverse For the Vniverse being the Aggregate of all Bodies there is no reall part thereof that is not also Body nor any thing properly a Body that is not also part of that Aggregate of all Bodies the Vniverse The same also because Bodies are subject to change that is to say to variety of apparence to the sense of living creatures is called Substance that is to say Subject to various accidents as sometimes to be Moved sometimes to stand Still and to seem to our senses sometimes Hot sometimes Cold sometimes of one Colour Smel Tast or Sound somtimes of another And this diversity of Seeming produced by the diversity of the operatioÌ of bodies on the organs of our sense we attribute to alterations of the Bodies that operate call them Accidents of those Bodies And according to this acceptation of the word Substance and Body signifie the same thing and therefore Substance incorporeall are words which when they are joined together destroy one another as if
of them that were absent or that being present were not willing it should be done According to this sense I define a CHURCH to be A company of men professing Christian Religion united in the person of one Soveraign at whose command they ought to assemble and without whose authority they ought not to assemble And because in all Common-wealths that Assembly which is without warrant from the Civil Soveraign is unlawful that Church also which is assembled in any Common-wealth that hath forbidden them to assemble is an unlawfull Assembly It followeth also that there is on Earth no such universall Church as all Christians are bound to obey because there is no power on Earth to which all other Common-wealths are subject There are Christians in the Dominions of severall Princes and States but every one of them is subject to that Common-wealth whereof he is himself a member and consequently cannot be subject to the commands of any other Person And therefore a Church such a one as is capable to Command to Judge Absolve Condemn or do any other act is the same thing with a Civil Common-wealth consisting of Christian men and is called a Civill State for that the subjects of it are Men and a Church for that the subjects thereof are Christians Temporall and Spirituall Government are but two words brought into the world to make men see double and mistake their Lawfull Soveraign It is true that the bodies of the faithfull after the Resurrection shall be not onely Spirituall but Eternall but in this life they are grosse and corruptible There is therefore no other Government in this life neither of State nor Religion but Temporall nor teaching of any doctrine lawfull to any Subject which the Governour both of the State and of the Religion forbiddeth to be taught And that Governor must be one or else there must needs follow Faction and Civil war in the Common-wealth between the Church and State between Spiritualists and Temporalists between the Sword of Iustice and the Shield of Faith and which is more in every Christian mans own brest between the Christian and the Man The Doctors of the Church are called Pastors so also are Civill Soveraignes But if Pastors be not subordinate one to another so as that there may bee one chief Pastor men will be taught contrary Doctrines whereof both may be and one must be false Who that one chief Pastor is according to the law of Nature hath been already shewn namely that it is the Civill Soveraign And to whom the Scripture hath assigned that Office we shall see in the Chapters following CHAP. XL. Of the RIGHTS of the Kingdome of God in Abraham Moses the High Priests and the Kings of Judah THe Father of the Faithfull and first in the Kingdome of God by Covenant was Abraham For with him was the Covenant first made wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledge and obey the commands of God not onely such as he could take notice of as Morall Laws by the light of Nature but also such as God should in speciall manner deliver to him by Dreams and Visions For as to the Morall law they were already obliged and needed not have been contracted withall by promise of the Land of Canaan Nor was there any Contract that could adde to or strengthen the Obligation by which both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty And therefore the Covenant which Abraham made with God was to take for the Commandement of God that which in the name of God was commanded him in a Dream or Vifion and to deliver it to his family and cause them to observe the same In this Contract of God with Abraham wee may observe three points of important consequence in the government of Gods people First that at the making of this Covenant God spake onely to Abraham and therefore contracted not with any of his family or seed otherwise then as their wills which make the essence of all Covenants were before the Contract involved in the will of Abraham who was therefore supposed to have had a lawfull power to make them perform all that he covenanted for them According whereunto Gen. 18. 18 19. God saith All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. From whence may be concluded this first point that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately are to receive the positive commandements of God from their Soveraign as the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham their Father and Lord and Civill Soveraign And consequently in every Common-wealth they who have no supernaturall Revelation to the contrary ought to obey the laws of their own Soveraign in the externall acts and profession of Religion As for the inward thought and beleef of men which humane Governours can take no notice of for God onely knoweth the heart they are not voluntary nor the effect of the laws but of the unrevealed will and of the power of God and consequently fall not under obligation From whence proceedeth another point that it was not unlawfull for Abraham when any of his Subjects should pretend Private Vision or Spirit or other Revelation from God for the countenancing of any doctrine which Abraham should forbid or when they followed or adhered to any such pretender to punish them and consequently that it is lawfull now for the Soveraign to punish any man that shall oppose his Private Spirit against the Laws For hee hath the same place in the Common-wealth that Abraham had in his own Family There ariseth also from the same a third point that as none but Abraham in his family so none but the Soveraign in a Christian Common-wealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God For God spake onely to Abraham and it was he onely that was able to know what God said and to interpret the same to his family And therefore also they that have the place of Abraham in a Common-wealth are the onely Interpreters of what God hath spoken The same Covenant was renewed with Isaac and afterwards with Jacob but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians and arrived at the Foot of Mount Sinai and then it was renewed by Moses as I have said before chap. 35. in such manner as they became from that time forward the Peculiar Kingdome of God whose Lieutenant was Moses for his owne time and the succession to that office was setled upon Aaron and his heirs after him to bee to God a Sacerdotall Kingdome for ever By this constitution a Kingdome is acquired to God But seeing Moses had no authority to govern the Israelites as a successor to the right of Abraham because he could not claim it by inheritance it appeareth not as yet that the
and delivered by God himselfe to Moses and by Moses made known to the people Before that time there was no written Law of God who as yet having not chosen any people to bee his peculiar Kingdome had given no Law to men but the Law of Nature that is to say the Precepts of Naturall Reason written in every mans own heart Of these two Tables the first containeth the law of Soveraignty 1. That they should not obey nor honour the Gods of other Nations in these words Non-habebis Deos alienos coram me that is Thou shalt not have for Gods the Gods that other Nations worship but onely me whereby they were forbidden to obey or honor as their King and Governour any other God than him that spake unto them then by Moses and afterwards by the High Priest 2. That they should not make any Image to represent him that is to say they were not to choose to themselves neither in heaven nor in earth any Representative of their own fancying but obey Moses and Aaron whom he had appointed to that office 3. That they should not take the Name of God in vain that is they should not speak rashly of their King nor dispute his Right nor the commissions of Moses and Aaron his Lieutenants 4. That they should every Seventh day abstain from their ordinary labour and employ that time in doing him Publique Honor. The second Table containeth the Duty of one man towards another as To honor Parents Not to kill Not to Commit Adultery Not to steale Not to corrupt Iudgment by false witnesse and finally Not so much as to designe in their heart the doing of any injury one to another The question now is Who it was that gave to these written Tables the obligatory force of Lawes There is no doubt but they were made Laws by God himselfe But because a Law obliges not nor is Law to any but to them that acknowledge it to be the act of the Soveraign how could the people of Israel that were forbidden to approach the Mountain to hear what God said to Moses be obliged to obedience to all those laws which Moses propounded to them Some of them were indeed the Laws of Nature as all the Second Table and therefore to be acknowledged for Gods Laws not to the Israelites alone but to all people But of those that were peculiar to the Israelites as those of the first Table the question remains saving that they had obliged themselves presently after the propounding of them to obey Moses in these words Exod. 20. 19. Speak thou to us and we will hear thee but let not God speak to us lest we dye It was therefore onely Moses then and after him the High Priest whom by Moses God declared should administer this his peculiar Kingdome that had on Earth the power to make this short Scripture of the Decalogue to bee Law in the Common-wealth of Israel But Moses and Aaron and the succeeding High Priests were the Civill Soveraigns Therefore hitherto the Canonizing or making of the Scripture Law belonged to the Civill Soveraigne The Judiciall Law that is to say the Laws that God prescribed to the Magistrates of Israel for the rule of their administration of Justice and of the Sentences or Judgments they should pronounce in Pleas between man and man and the Leviticall Law that is to say the rule that God prescribed touching the Rites and Ceremonies of the Priests and Levites were all delivered to them by Moses onely and therefore also became Lawes by vertue of the same promise of obedience to Moses Whether these laws were then written or not written but dictated to the People by Moses after his forty dayes being with God in the Mount by word of mouth is not expressed in the Text but they were all positive Laws and equivalent to holy Scripture and made Canonicall by Moses the Civill Soveraign After the Israelites were come into the Plains of Moab over against Jericho and ready to enter into the land of Promise Moses to the former Laws added divers others which therefore are called Deuteronomy that is Second Laws And are as it is written Deut. 29. 1. The words of a Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel besides the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb. For having explained those former Laws in the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy he addeth others that begin at the 12. Cha. and continue to the end of the 26. of the same Book This Law Deut. 27. 1. they were commanded to write upon great stones playstered over at their passing over Jordan This Law also was written by Moses himself in a Book and delivered into the hands of the Priests and to the Elders of Israel Deut. 31. 9. and commanded ve 26. to be put in the side of the Arke for in the Ark it selfe was nothing but the Ten Commandements This was the Law which Moses Deuteronomy 17. 18. commanded the Kings of Israel should keep a copie of And this is the Law which having been long time lost was found again in the Temple in the time of Josiah and by his authority received for the Law of God But both Moses at the writing and Josiah at the recovery thereof had both of them the Civill Soveraignty Hitherto therefore the Power of making Scripture Canonicall was in the Civill Soveraign Besides this Book of the Law there was no other Book from the time of Moses till after the Captivity received amongst the Jews for the Law of God For the Prophets except a few lived in the time of the Captivity it selfe and the rest lived but a little before it and were so far from having their Prophecies generally received for Laws as that their persons were persecuted partly by false Prophets and partly by the Kings which were seduced by them And this Book it self which was confirmed by Josiah for the Law of God and with it all the History of the Works of God was lost in the Captivity and sack of the City of Jerusalem as appears by that of 2 Esdras 14. 21. Thy Law is burnt therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee or the works that shall begin And before the Captivity between the time when the Law was lost which is not mentioned in the Scripture but may probably be thought to be the time of Rehoboam when Shishak King of Egypt took the spoile of the Temple and the time of Josiah when it was found againe they had no written Word of God but ruled according to their own discretion or by the direction of such as each of them esteemed Prophets From hence we may inferre that the Scriptures of the Old Testament which we have at this day were not Canonicall nor a Law unto the Jews till the renovation of their Covenant with God at their return from the Captivity and restauration of their Common-wealth under Esdras But from that time
it to the Schools Plato that was the best Philosopher of the Greeks forbad entrance into his Schoole to all that were not already in some measure Geometricians There were many that studied that Science to the great advantage of mankind but there is no mention of their Schools nor was there any Sect of Geometricians nor did they then passe under the name of Philosophers The naturall Philosophy of those Schools was rather a Dream than Science and set forth in senselesse and insignificant Language which cannot be avoided by those that will teach Philosophy without having first attained great knowledge in Geometry For Nature worketh by Motion the Wayes and Degrees whereof cannot be known without the knowledge of the Proportions and Properties of Lines and Figures Their Morall Philosophy is but a description of their own Passions For the rule of Manners without Civill Government is the Law of Nature and in it the Law Civill that determineth what is Honest and Dishonest what is Iust and Vnjust and generally what is Good and Evill whereas they make the Rules of Good and Bad by their own Liking and Disliking By which means in so great diversity of taste there is nothing generally agreed on but every one doth as far as he dares whatsoever seemeth good in his owne eyes to the subversion of Common-wealth Their Loigque which should bee the Method of Reasoning is nothing else but Captions of Words and Inventions how to puzzle such as should goe about to pose them To conclude there is nothing so absurd that the old Philosophers as Cicero saith who was one of them have not some of them maintained And I beleeve that scarce any thing can be more absurdly said in naturall Philosophy than that which now is called Aristotles Metaphysiques nor more repugnant to Government than much of that hee hath said in his Politiques nor more ignorantly than a great part of his Ethiques The Schoole of the Jews was originally a Schoole of the Law of Moses who commanded Deut. 31. 10. that at the end of every seventh year at the Feast of the Tabernacles it should be read to all the people that they might hear and learn it Therefore the reading of the Law which was in use after the Captivity every Sabbath day ought to have had no other end but the acquainting of the people with the Commandements which they were to obey and to expound unto them the writings of the Prophets But it is manifest by the many reprehensions of them by our Saviour that they corrupted the Text of the Law with their false Commentaries and vain Traditions and so little understood the Prophets that they did neither acknowledge Christ nor the works he did of which the Prophets prophecyed So that by their Lectures and Disputations in their Synagogues they turned the Doctrine of their Law into a Phantasticall kind of Philosophy concerning the incomprehensible nature of God and of Spirits which they compounded of the Vain Philosophy and Theology of the Graecians mingled with their own fancies drawn from the obscurer places of the Scripture and which might most easily bee wrested to their purpose and from the Fabulous Traditions of their Ancestors That which is now called an Vniversity is a Joyning together and an Incorporation under one Government of many Publique Schools in one and the same Town or City In which the principall Schools were ordained for the three Professions that is to say of the Romane Religion of the Romane Law and of the Art of Medicine And for the study of Philosophy it hath no otherwise place then as a handmaid to the Romane Religion And since the Authority of Aristotle is onely current there that study is not properly Philosophy the nature whereof dependeth not on Authors but Aristotelity And for Geometry till of very late times it had no place at all as being subservient to nothing but rigide Truth And if any man by the ingenuity of his owne nature had attained to any degree of perfection therein hee was commonly thought a Magician and his Art Diabolicall Now to descend to the particular Tenets of Vain Philosophy derived to the Universities and thence into the Church partly from Aristotle partly from Blindnesse of understanding I shall first consider their Principles There is a certain Philosophia prima on which all other Philosophy ought to depend and consisteth principally in right limiting of the significations of such Appellations or Names as are of all others the most Universall Which Limitations serve to avoid ambiguity and aequivocation in Reasoning and are commonly called Definitions such as are the Definitions of Body Time Place Matter Forme Essence Subject Substance Accident Power Act Finite Infinite Quantity Quality Motion Action Passion and divers others necessary to the explaining of a mans Conceptions concerning the Nature and Generation of Bodies The Explication that is the setling of the meaning of which and the like Terms is commonly in the Schools called Metaphysiques as being a part of the Philosophy of Aristotle which hath that for title but it is in another sense for there it signifieth as much as Books written or placed after his naturall Philosophy But the Schools take them for Books of supernaturall Philosophy for the word Metaphysiques will bear both these senses And indeed that which is there written is for the most part so far from the possibility of being understood and so repugnant to naturall Reason that whosoever thinketh there is any thing to bee understood by it must needs think it supernaturall From these Metaphysiques which are mingled with the Scripture to make Schoole Divinity wee are told there be in the world certaine Essences separated from Bodies which they call Abstract Essences and Substantiall Formes For the Interpreting of which Iargon there is need of somewhat more than ordinary attention in this place Also I ask pardon of those that are not used to this kind of Discourse for applying my selfe to those that are The World I mean not the Earth onely that denominates the Lovers of it Worldly men but the Vniverse that is the whole masse of all things that are is Corporeall that is to say Body and hath the dimensions of Magnitude namely Length Bredth and Depth also every part of Body is likewise Body and hath the like dimeââ¦ions and consequently every part of the Universe is Body and that which is not Body is no part of the Universe And because the Universe is All that which is no part of it is Nothing and consequently no where Nor does it follow from hence that Spirits are nothing for they have dimensions and are therefore really Bodies though that name in common Speech be given to such Bodies onely as are visible or palpable that is that have some degree of Opacity But for Spirits they call them Incorporeall which is a name of more honour and may therefore with more piety bee attributed to God himselfe in whom wee consider not what
Non est postestas Super terram quae Comparetur ei Iob. 41.24 LEVIATHAN Or THE MATTER FORME and POWER of a COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICALL and CIVIL By THOMAS HOBBES of MALMESBURY London Printed for Andrew Crooke 1651 LEVIATHAN OR The Matter Forme Power OF A COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICALL AND CIVILL By THOMAS HOBBES of Malmesbury LONDON Printed for ANDREW CROOKE at the Green Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1651. FIDE â ET â FORTITUDINE The Right Hon. ble Algernon Capell Earl of Essex Viscount Maldon and Baron Capell of Hadham 1701. TO MY MOST HONOR'D FRIEND Mr FRANCIS GODOLPHIN of Godolphin Honor'd Sir YOur most worthy Brother Mr Sidney Godolphin when he lived was pleas'd to think my studies something and otherwise to oblige me as you know with reall testimonies of his good opinion great in themselves and the greater for the worthinesse of his person For there is not any vertue that disposeth a man either to the service of God or to the service of his Country to Civill Society or private Friendship that did not manifestly appear in his conversation not as acquired by necessity or affected upon occasion but inhaerent and shining in a generous constitution of his nature Therefore in honour and gratitude to him and with devotion to your selfe I humbly Dedicate unto you this my discourse of Common-wealth I know not how the world will receive it nor how it may reflect on those that shall seem to favour it For in a way beset with those that contend on one side for too great Liberty and on the other side for too much Authority 't is hard to passe between the points of both unwounded But yet me thinks the endeavour to advance the Civill Power should not be by the Civill Power condemned nor private men by reprehending it declare they think that Power too great Besides I speak not of the men but in the Abstract of the Seat of Power like to those simple and unpartiall creatures in the Roman Capitol that with their noyse defended those within it not because they were they but there offending none I think but those without or such within if there be any such as favour them That which perhaps may most offend are certain Texts of Holy Scripture alledged by me to other purpose than ordinarily they use to be by others But I have done it with due submission and also in order to my Subject necessarily for they are the Outworks of the Enemy from whence they impugne the Civill Power If notwithstanding this you find my labour generally decryed you may be pleased to excuse your selfe and say I am a man that love my own opinions and think all true I say that I honoured your Brother and honour you and have presum'd on that to assume the Title without your knowledge of being as I am SIR Your most humble and most obedient servant THO. HOBBES Paris Aprill 15 25. 1651. The Contents of the Chapters The first part Of MAN Chap. Introduction Page 1 Chap. 1. Of Sense Page 3 Chap. 2. Of Imagination Page 4 Chap. 3. Of the Consequence or Train of Imaginations Page 8 Chap. 4. Of Speech Page 12 Chap. 5. Of Reason and Science Page 18 Chap. 6. Of the interiour Beginnings of Voluntary Motions commonly called the Passions And the Speeches by which they are expressed Page 23 Chap. 7. Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse Page 30 Chap. 8. Of the Vertues commonly called Intellectuall and their contrary Defects Page 32 Chap. 9. Of the severall Subjects of Knowledge Page 40 Chap. 10. Of Power Worth Dignity Honour and Worthinesse Page 41 Chap. 11. Of the Difference of Manners Page 47 Chap. 12. Of Religion Page 52 Chap. 13. Of the Naturall Condition of Mankind as concerning their Felicity and Misery Page 60 Chap. 14. Of the first and second Naturall Lawes and of Contract Page 64 Chap. 15. Of other Lawes of Nature Page 71 Chap. 16. Of Persons Authors and things Personated Page 80 The second Part Of COMMON-WEALTH Chap. 17. Of the Causes Generation and Definition of a Common-wealth Page 85 Chap. 18. Of the Rights of Soveraignes by Institution Page 88 Chap. 19. Of severall Kinds of Common-wealth by Institution and of Succession to the Soveraign Power Page 94 Chap. 20. Of Dominion Paternall and Despoticall Page 101 Chap. 21. Of the Liberty of Subjects Page 107 Chap. 22. Of Systemes Subject Politicall and Private Page 115 Chap. 23. Of the Publique Ministers of Soveraign Power Page 123 Chap. 24. Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Common-wealth Page 127 Chap. 25. Of Counsell Page 131 Chap. 26. Of Civill Lawes Page 136 Chap. 27. Of Crimes Excuses and Extenuations Page 151 Chap. 28. Of Punishments and Rewards Page 161 Chap. 29. Of those things that Weaken or tend to the Dissolution of a Common-wealth Page 167 Chap. 30. Of the Office of the Soveraign Representative Page 175 Chap. 31. Of the Kingdome of God by Nature Page 186 The third Part. Of A CHRISTIAN COMMON-WEALTH Chap. 32. Of the Principles of Christian Politiques Page 195 Chap. 33. Of the Number Antiquity Scope Authority and Interpreters of the Books of Holy Scripture Page 199 Chap. 34. Of the signification of Spirit Angell and Inspiration in the Books of Holy Scripture Page 207 Chap. 35. Of the signification in Scripture of the Kingdome of God of Holy Sacred and Sacrament Page 216 Chap. 36. Of the Word of God and of Prophets Page 222 Chap. 37. Of Miracles and their use Page 233 Chap. 38. Of the signification in Scripture of Eternall life Hel Salvation the World to come and Redemption Page 238 Chap. 39. Of the Signification in Scripture of the word Church Page 247 Chap. 40. Of the Rights of the Kingdome of God in Abraham Moses the High Priests and the Kings of Judah Page 249 Chap. 41. Of the Office of our Blessed Saviour Page 261 Chap. 42. Of Power Ecclesiasticall Page 267 Chap. 43. Of what is Necessary for a mans Reception into the Kingdome of Heaven Page 321 The fourth Part. Of THE KINGDOME OF DARKNESSE Chap. 44. Of Spirituall Darknesse from Misinterpretation of Scripture Page 333 Chap. 45. Of Daemonology and other Reliques of the Religion of the Gentiles Page 352 Chap. 46. Of Darknesse from Vain Philosophy and Fabulous Traditions Page 367 Chap. 47. Of the Benefit proceeding from such Darknesse and to whom it accreweth Page 381 A Review and Conclusion Page 389 Errata PAge 48. In the Margin for love Praise rââ¦d love of Praise p. 75. l. 5. for signied r. signified p. 88. l. 1. for performe r. forme l. 35. for Soveraign r. the Soveraign p. 94. l. 14. for lands r. hands p. 100. l. 28. for in r. in his p. 102. l. 46. for in r. is p. 105. in the margin for ver 10. r. ver 19. c. p. 116. l. 46. for are involved r. are not involved p. 120. l. 42. for Those Bodies r. These Bodies p. 137. â⦠a. for in generall r. in generall p. 139.
above their understanding than to define his Nature by Spirit Incorporeall and then confesse their definition to be unintelligible or if they give him such a title it is not Dogmatically with intention to make the Divine Nature understood but Piously to honour him with attributes of significations as remote as they can from the grossenesse of Bodies Visible Then for the way by which they think these Invisible Agents wrought their effects that is to say what immediate causes they used in bringing things to passe men that know not what it is that we call causing that is almost all men have no other rule to guesse by but by observing and remembring what they have seen to precede the like effect at some other time or times before without seeing between the antecedent and subsequent Event any dependance or connexion at all And therefore from the like things past they expect the like things to come and hope for good or evill luck superstitiously from things that have no part at all in the causing of it As the Athenians did for their war at Lepanto demand another Phormio The Pompeian faction for their warre in Afrique another Scipio and others have done in divers other occasions since In like manner they attribute their fortune to a stander by to a lucky or unlucky place to words spoken especially if the name of God be amongst them as Charming and Conjuring the Leiturgy of Witches insomuch as to believe they have power to turn a stone into bread bread into a man or any thing into any thing Thirdly for the worship which naturally men exhibite to Powers invisible it can be no other but such expressions of their reverence as they would use towards men Gifts Petitions Thanks Submission of Body Considerate Addresses sober Behaviour premeditated Words Swearing that is assuring one another of their promises by invoking them Beyond that reason suggesteth nothing but leaves them either to rest there or for further ceremonies to rely on those they believe to be wiser than themselves Lastly concerning how these Invisible Powers declare to men the things which shall hereafter come to passe especially concerning their good or evill fortune in generall or good or ill successe in any particular undertaking men are naturally at a stand save that using to conjecture of the time to come by the time past they are very apt not onely to take casuall things after one or two encounters for Prognostiques of the like encounter ever after but also to believe the like Prognostiques from other men of whom they have once conceived a good opinion And in these foure things Opinion of Ghosts Ignorance of second causes Devotion towards what men fear and Taking of things Casuall for Prognostiques consisteth the Naturall seed of Religion which by reason of the different Fancies Judgements and Passions of severall men hath grown up into ceremonies so different that those which are used by one man are for the most part ridiculous to another For these seeds have received culture from two sorts of men One sort have been they that have nourished and ordered them according to their own invention The other have done it by Gods commandement and direction but both sorts have done it with a purpose to make those men that relyed on them the more apt to Obedience Lawes Peace Charity and civill Society So that the Religion of the former sort is a part of humane Politiques and teacheth part of the duty which Earthly Kings require of their Subjects And the Religion of the later sort is Divine Politiques and containeth Precepts to those that have yeelded themselves subjects in the Kingdome of God Of the former sort were all the founders of Common-wealths and the Law-givers of the Gentiles Of the later sort were Abraham Moses and our Blessed Saviour by whom have been derived unto us the Lawes of the Kingdome of God And for that part of Religion which consisteth in opinions concerning the nature of Powers Invisible there is almost nothing that has a name that has not been esteemed amongst the Gentiles in one place or another a God or Divell or by their Poets feigned to be inanimated inhabited or possessed by some Spirit or other The unformed matter of the World was a God by the name of Chaos The Heaven the Ocean the Planets the Fire the Earth the Winds were so many Gods Men Women a Bird a Crocodile a Calf a Dogge a Snake an Onion a Leeke Deââ¦fied Besides that they filled almost all places with spirits called Daemons the plains with Pan and Panises or Satyres the Woods with Fawnes and Nymphs the Sea with Tritons and other Nymphs every River and Fountayn with a Ghost of his name and with Nymphs every house with its Lares or Familiars every man with his Genius Hell with Ghosts and spirituall Officers as Charon Cerberus and the Furies and in the night time all places with Larvae Lemures Ghosts of men deceased and a whole kingdome of Fayries and Bugbears They have also ascribed Divinity and built Temples to meer Accidenââ¦s and Qualities such as are Time Night Day Peace Concord Love Contention Vertue Honour Health Rust Fever and the like which when they prayed for or against they prayed to as if there were Ghosts of those names hanging over their heads and letting fall or withholding that Good or Evill for or against which they prayed They invoked also their own Wit by the name of Muses their own Ignorance by the name of Fortune their own Lust by the name of Cupid their own Rage by the name Furies their own privy members by the name of Priapus and attributed their pollutions to ââ¦ncubi and Succubae insomuch as there was nothing which a Poet could introduce as a person in his Poem which they did not make either a God or a Divel The same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles observing the second ground for Religion which is mens Ignorance of causes and thereby their aptnesse to attribute their fortune to causes on which there was no dependance at all apparent took occasion to obtrude on their ignorance in stead of second causes a kind of second and ministeriall Gods ascribing the cause of Foecundity to Venus the cause of Arts to Apolla of Subtilty and Craft to Mercury of Tempests and stormes to Aeolus and of other effects to other Gods insomuch as there was amongst the Heathen almost as great variety of Gods as of businesse And to the Worship which naturally men conceived fit to bee used towards their Gods namely Oblations Prayers Thanks and the rest formerly named the same Legislators of the Gentiles have added their Images both in Picture and Sculpture that the more ignorant sort that is to say the most part or generality of the people thinking the Gods for whose representation they were made were really included and as it were housed within them might so much the more stand in feare of them And endowed them
a future right the later that be of the Future transferre nothing But if there be other signes of the Will to transferre a Right besides Words then though the gift be Free yet may the Right be understood to passe by words of the future as if a man propound a Prize to him that comes first to the end of a race The gift is Free and though the words be of the Future yet the Right passeth for if he would not have his words so be understood he should not have let them runne In Contracts the right passeth not onely where the words are of the time Present or Past but also where they are of the Future because all Contract is mutuall translation or change of Right and therefore he that promiseth onely because he hath already received the benefit for which he promiseth is to be understood as if he intended the Right should passe for unlesse he had been content to have his words so understood the other would not have performed his part first And for that cause in buying and selling and other acts of Contract a Promise is equivalent to a Covenant and therefore obligatory He that performeth first in the case of a Contract is said to MERIT that which he is to receive by the performance of the other and he hath it as Due Also when a Prize is propounded to many which is to be given to him onely that winneth or mony is thrown amongst many to be enjoyed by them that catch it though this be a Free gift yet so to Win or so to Catch is to Merit and to have it as DUE For the Right is transferred in the Propounding of the Prize and in throwing down the mony though it be not determined to whom but by the Event of the contention But there is between these two sorts of Merit this difference that In Contract I Merit by vertue of my own power and the Contractors need but in this case of Free gift I am enabled to Merit onely by the benignity of the Giver In Contract I merit at the Contractors hand that hee should depart with his right In this case of Gift I Merit not that the giver should part with his right but that when he has parted with it it should be mine rather than anothers And this I think to be the meaning of that distinction of the Schooles between Meritum congrui and Meritum condigni For God Almighty having promised Paradise to those men hoodwinkt with carnall desires that can walk through this world according to the Precepts and Limits prescribed by him they say he that shall so walk shall Merit Paradise Ex congruo But because no man can demand a right to it by his own Righteousnesse or any other power in himselfe but by the Free Grace of God onely they say no man can Merit Paradise ex condigno This I say I think is the meaning of that distinction but because Disputers do not agree upon the signification of their own termes of Art longer than it serves their turn I will not affirme any thing of their meaning onely this I say when a gift is given indefinitely as a prize to be contended for he that winneth Meriteth and may claime the Prize as Due If a Covenant be made wherein neither of the parties performe presently but trust one another in the condition of meer Nature which is a condition of Warre of every man against every man upon any reasonable suspition it is Voyd But if there be a common Power set over them both with right and force sufficient to compell performance it is not Voyd For he that performeth first has no assurance the other will performe after because the bonds of words are too weak to bridle mens ambition avarice anger and other Passions without the feare of some coerceive Power which in the condition of meer Nature where all men are equall and judges of the justnesse of their own fears cannot possibly be supposed And therfore he which performeth first does but betray himselfe to his enemy contrary to the Right he can never abandon of defending his life and means of living But in a civill estate where there is a Power set up to constrain those that would otherwise violate their faith that feare is no more reasonable and for that cause he which by the Covenant is to perform first is obliged so to do The cause of feare which maketh such a Covenant invalid must be alwayes something arising after the Covenant made as some new fact or other signe of the Will not to performe else it cannot make the Covenant voyd For that which could not hinder a man from promising ought not to be admitted as a hindrance of performing He that transferreth any Right transferreth the Means of enjoying it as farre as lyeth in his power As he that selleth Land is understood to transferre the Herbage and whatsoever growes upon it Nor can he that sells a Mill turn away the Stream that drives it And they that give to a man the Right of government in Soveraignty are understood to give him the right of levying mony to maintain Souldiers and of appointing Magistrates for the administration of Justice To make Covenants with bruit Beasts is impossible because not understanding our speech they understand not nor accept of any translation of Right nor can translate any Right to another and without mutuall acceptation there is no Covenant To make Covenant with God is impossible but by Mediation of such as God speaketh to either by Revelation supernaturall or by his Lieutenants that govern under him and in his Name For otherwise we know not whether our Covenants be accepted or not And therefore they that Vow any thing contrary to any law of Nature Vow in vain as being a thing unjust to pay such Vow And if it be a thing commanded by the Law of Nature it is not the Vow but the Law that binds them The matter or subject of a Covenant is alwayes something that falleth under deliberation For to Covenant is an act of the Will that is to say an act and the last act of deliberation and is therefore alwayes understood to be something to come and which is judged Possible for him that Covenanteth to performe And therefore to promise that which is known to be Impossible is no Covenant But if that prove impossible afterwards which before was thought possible the Covenant is valid and bindeth though not to the thing it selfe yet to the value or if that also be impossible to the unfeigned endeavour of performing as much as is possible for to more no man can be obliged Men are freed of their Covenants two wayes by Performing or by being Forgiven For Performance is the naturall end of obligation and Eorgivenesse the restitution of liberty as being a retransferring of that Right in which the obligation consisted Covenants entred into by fear in the condition of
meer Nature are obligatory For example if I Covenant to pay a ransome or service for my life to an enemy I am bound by it For it is a Contract wherein one receiveth the benefit of life the other is to receive mony or service for it and consequently where no other Law as in the condition of meer Nature forbiddeth the performance the Covenant is valid Therefore Prisoners of warre if trusted with the payment of their Ransome are obliged to pay it And if a weaker Prince make a disadvantageous peace with a stronger for feare he is bound to keep it unlesse as hath been sayd before there ariseth some new and just cause of feare to renew the war And even in Common-wealths if I be forced to redeem my selfe from a Theefe by promising him mony I am bound to pay it till the Civill Law discharge me For whatsoever I may lawfully do without Obligation the same I may lawfully Covenant to do through feare and what I lawfully Covenant I cannot lawfully break A former Covenant makes voyd a later For a man that hath passed away his Right to one man to day hath it not to passe to morrow to another and therefore the later promise passeth no Right but is null A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force by force is alwayes voyd For as I have shewed before no man can transferre or lay down his Right to save himselfe from Death Wounds and Imprisonment the avoyding whereof is the onely End of laying down any Right and therefore the promise of not resisting force in no Covenant transferreth any right nor is obliging For though a man may Covenant thus Unlesse I do so or so kill me he cannot Covenant thus Unlesse I do so or so I will not resist you when you come to kill me For man by nature chooseth the lesser evill which is danger of death in resisting rather than the greater which is certain and present death in not resisting And this is granted to be true by all men in that they lead Criminals to Execution and Prison with armed men notwithstanding that such Criminals have consented to the Law by which they are condemned A Covenant to accuse ones selfe without assurance of pardon is likewise invalide For in the condition of Nature where every man is Judge there is no place for Accusation and in the Civill State the Accusation is followed with Punishment which being Force a man is not obliged not to resist The same is also true of the Accusation of those by whose Condemnation a man falls into misery as of a Father Wife or Benefactor For the Testimony of such an Accuser if it be not willingly given is praesumed to be corrupted by Nature and therefore not to be received and where a mans Testimony is not to be credited he is not bound to give it Also Accusations upon Torture are not to be reputed as Testimonies For Torture is to be used but as means of conjecture and light in the further examination and search of truth and what is in that case confessed tendeth to the ease of him that is Tortured not to the informing of the Torturers and therefore ought not to have the credit of a sufficient Testimony for whether he deliver himselfe by true or false Accusation he does it by the Right of preserving his own life The force of Words being as I have formerly noted too weak to hold men to the performance of their Covenants there are in mans nature but two imaginable helps to strengthen it And those are either a Feare of the consequence of breaking their word or a Glory or Pride in appearing not to need to breake it This later is a Generosity too rarely found to be presumed on especially in the pursuers of Wealth Command or sensuall Pleasure which are the greatest part of Mankind The Passion to be reckoned upon is Fear whereof there be two very generall Objects one The Power of Spirits Invisible the other The Power of those men they shall therein Offend Of these two though the former be the greater Power yet the feare of the later is commonly the greater Feare The Feare of the former is in every man his own Religion which hath place in the nature of man before Civill Society The later hath not so at least not place enough to keep men to their promises because in the condition of meer Nature the inequality of Power is not discerned but by the event of Battell So that before the time of Civill Society or in the interruption thereof by Warre there is nothing can strengthen a Covenant of Peace agreed on against the temptations of Avarice Ambition Lust or other strong desire but the feare of that Invisible Power which they every one Worship as God and Feare as a Revenger of their perfidy All therefore that can be done between two men not subject to Civill Power is to put one another to swear by the God he feareth Which Swearing or OATH is a Forme of Speech added to a Promise by which he that promiseth ââ¦gnisieth that unlesse he performe he renounceth the mercy of his God or calleth to him for vengeance on himselfe Such was the Heathen Forme Let Jupiter kill me else as I kill this Beast So is our Forme I shall do thus and thus so help me God And this with the Rites and Ceremonies which every one useth in his own Religion that the feare of breaking faith might be the greater By this it appears that an Oath taken according to any other Forme or Rite then his that sweareth is in vain and no Oath And that there is no Swearing by any thing which the Swearer thinks not God For though men have sometimes used to swear by their Kings for feare or flattery yet they would have it thereby understood they attributed to them Divine honour And that Swearing unnecessarily by God is but prophaning of his name and Swearing by other things as men do in common discourse is not Swearing but an impious Custome gotten by too much vehemence of talking It appears also that the Oath addes nothing to the Obligation For a Covenant if lawfull binds in the sight of God without the Oath as much as with it if unlawfull bindeth not at all though it be confirmed with an Oath CHAP. XV. Of other Lawes of Nature FRom that law of Nature by which we are obliged to transferre to another such Rights as being retained hinder the peace of Mankind there followeth a Third which is this That men performe their Covenants made without which Covenants are in vain and but Empty words and the Right of all men to all things remaining wee are still in the condition of Warre And in this law of Nature consisteth the Fountain and Originall of JUSTICE For where no Covenant hath preceded there hath no Right been transferred and every man has right to every thing and consequently no action can
be Unjust But when a Covenant is made then to break it is Unjust And the definition of INIUSTICE is no other than the not Performance of Covenant And whatsoever is not Unjust is Just. But because Covenants of mutuall trust where there is a feare of not performance on either part as hath been said in the former Chapter are invalid though the Originall of Justice be the making of Covenants yet Injustice actually there can be none till the cause of such feare be taken away which while men are in the naturall condition of Warre cannot be done Therefore before the names of Just and Unjust can have place there must be some coërcive Power to compell men equally to the performance of their Covenants by the terrour of some punishment greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their Covenant and to make good that Propriety which by mutuall Contract men acquire in recompence of the universall Right they abandon and such power there is none before the erection of a Common-wealth And this is also to be gathered out of the ordinary definition of Justice in the Schooles For they say that Justice is the constant Will of giving to every man his own And therefore where there is no Own that is no Propriety there is no Injustice and where there is no coërceive Power erected that is where there is no Common-wealth there is no Propriety all men having Right to all things Therefore where there is no Common-wealth there nothing is Unjust So that the nature of Justice consisteth in keeping of valid Covenants but the Validity of Covenants begins not but with the Constitution of a Civill Power sufficient to compell men to keep them And then it is also that Propriety begins The Foole hath fayd in his heart there is no such thing as Justice and sometimes also with his tongue seriously alleaging that every mans conservation and contentment being committed to his own care there could be no reason why every man might not do what he thought conduced thereunto and therefore also to make or not make keep or not keep Covenants was not against Reason when it conduced to ones benefit He does not therein deny that there be Covenants and that they are sometimes broken sometimes kept and that such breach of them may be called Injustice and the observance of them Justice but he questioneth whether Injustice taking away the feare of God for the same Foole hath said in his heart there is no God may not sometimes stand with that Reason which dictateth to every man his own good and particularly then when it conduceth to such a benefit as shall put a man in a condition to neglect not onely the dispraise and revilings but also the power of other men The Kingdome of God is gotten by violence but what if it could be gotten by unjust violence were it against Reason so to get it when it is impossible to receive hurt by it and if it be not against Reason it is not against Justice or else Justice is not to be approved for good From such reasoning as this Succesfull wickednesse hath obtained the name of Vertue and some that in all other things have disallowed the violation of Faith yet have allowed it when it is for the getting of a Kingdome And the Heathen that believed that Saturn was deposed by his son Jupiter believed neverthelesse the same Jupiter to be the avenger of Injustice Somewhat like to a piece of Law in Cokes Commentaries on Litleton where he sayes If the right Heire of the Crown be attainted of Treason yet the Crown shall descend to him and eo instante the Atteynder be voyd From which instances a man will be very prone to inferre that when the Heire apparent of a Kingdome shall kill him that is in possession though his father you may call it Injustice or by what other name you will yet it can never be against Reason seeing all the voluntary actions of men tend to the benefit of themselves and those actions are most Reasonable that conduce most to their ends This specious reasoning is neverthelesse false For the question is not of promises mutuall where there is no security of performance on either side as when there is no Civill Power erected over the parties promising for such promises are no Covenants But either where one of the parties has performed already or where there is a Power to make him performe there is the question whether it be against reason that is against the benefit of the other to performe or not And I say it is not against reason For the manifestation whereof we are to consider First that when a man doth a thing which notwithstanding any thing can be foreseen and reckoned on tendeth to his own destruction howsoever some accident which he could not expect arriving may turne it to his benefit yet such events do not make it reasonably or wisely done Secondly that in a condition of Warre wherein every man to every man for want of a common Power to keep them all in awe is an Enemy there is no man can hope by his own strength or wit to defend himselfe from destruction without the help of Confederates where every one expects the same defence by the Confederation that any one else does and therefore he which declares he thinks it reason to deceive those that help him can in reason expect no other means of safety than what can be had from his own single Power He therefore that breaketh his Covenant and consequently declareth that he thinks he may with reason do so cannot be received into any Society that unite themselves for Peace and Defence but by the errour of them that receive him nor when he is received be retayned in it without seeing the danger of their errour which errours a man cannot reasonably reckon upon as the means of his security and therefore if he be left or cast out of Society he perisheth and if he live in Society it is by the errours of other men which he could not foresee nor reckon upon and consequently against the reason of his preservation and so as all men that contribute not to his destruction forbear him onely out of ignorance of what is good for themselves As for the Instance of gaining the secure and perpetuall felicity of Heaven by any way it is frivolous there being but one way imaginable and that is not breaking but keeping of Covenant And for the other Instance of attaining Soveraignty by Rebellion it is manifest that though the event follow yet because it cannot reasonably be expected but rather the contrary and because by gaining it so others are taught to gain the same in like manner the attempt thereof is against reason Justice therefore that is to say Keeping of Covenant is a Rule of Reason by which we are forbidden to do any thing destructive to our life and consequently a Law of Nature There be some that proceed
further and will not have the Law of Nature to be those Rules which conduce to the preservation of mans life on earth but to the attaining of an eternall felicity after death to which they think the breach of Covenant may conduce and consequently be just and reasonable such are they that think it a work of merit to kill or depose or rebell against the Soveraigne Power constituted over them by their own consent But because there is no naturall knowledge of mans estate after death much lesse of the reward that is then to be given to breach of Faith but onely a beliefe grounded upon other mens saying that they know it supernaturally or that they know those that knew them that knew others that knew it supernaturally Breach of Faith cannot be called a Precept of Reason or Nature Others that allow for a Law of Nature the keeping of Faith do neverthelesse make exception of certain persons as Heretiques and such as use not to performe their Covenant to others And this also is against reason For if any fault of a man be sufficient to discharge our Covenant made the same ought in reason to have been sufficient to have hindred the making of it The names of Just and Injust when they are attributed to Men signifie one thing and when they are attributed to Actions another When they are attributed to Men they signifie Conformity or Inconformity of Manners to Reason But when they are attributed to Actions they signifie the Conformity or Inconformity to Reason not of Manners or manner of life but of particular Actions A Just man therefore is he that taketh all the care he can that his Actions may be all Just and an Unjust man is he that neglecteth it And such men are more often in our Language stiled by the names of Righteous and Unrighteous then Just and Unjust though the meaning be the same Therefore a Righteous man does not lose that Title by one or a few unjust Actions that proceed from sudden Passion or mistake of Things or Persons nor does an Unrighteous man lose his character for such Actions as he does or forbeares to do for feare because his Will is not framed by the Justice but by the apparent benefit of what he is to do That which gives to humane Actions the relish of Justice is a certain Noblenesse or Gallantnesse of courage rarely found by which a man scorns to be beholding for the contentment of his life to fraud or breach of promise This Justice of the Manners is that which is meant where Justice is called a Vertue and Injustice a Vice But the Justice of Actions denominates men not Just but Guiltlesse and the Injustice of the same which is also called Injury gives them but the name of Guilty Again the Injustice of Manners is the disposition or aptitude to do Injurie and is Injustice before it proceed to Act and without supposing any individuall person injured But the Injustice of an Action that is to say Injury supposeth an individuall person Injured namely him to whom the Covenant was made And therefore many times the injury is received by one man when the dammage redoundeth to another As when the Master commandeth his servant to give mony to a stranger if it be not done the Injury is done to the Master whom he had before Covenanted to obey but the dammage redoundeth to the stranger to whom he had no Obligation and therefore could not Injure him And so also in Common-wealths private men may remit to one another their debts but not robberies or other violences whereby they are endammaged becaââ¦se the detaining of Debt is an Injury to themselves but Robbery and Violence are Injuries to the Person of the Common-wealth Whatsoever is done to a man conformable to his own Will signied to the doer is no Injury to him For if he that doeth it hath not passed away his originall right to do what he please by some Antecedent Covenant there is no breach of Covenant and therefore no Injury done him And if he have then his Will to have it done being signified is a release of that Covenant and so again there is no Injury done him Justice of Actions is by Writers divided into Commutative and Distributive and the former they say consisteth in proportion Arithmeticall the later in proportion Geometricall Commutative therefore they place in the equality of value of the things contracted for And Distributive in the distribution of equall benefit to men of equall merit As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy or to give more to a man than he merits The value of all things contracted for is measured by the Appetite of the Contractors and therefore the just value is that which they be contented to give And Merit besides that which is by Covenant where the performance on one part meriteth the performance of the other part and falls under Justice Commutative not Distributive is not due by Justice but is rewarded of Grace onely And therefore this distinction in the sense wherein it useth to be expounded is not right To speak properly Commutative Justice is the Justice of a Contractor that is a Performance of Covenant in Buying and Selling Hiring and Letting to Hire Lending and Borrowing Exchanging Bartering and other acts of Contract And Distributive Justice the Justice of an Arbitrator that is to say the act of defining what is Just. Wherein being trusted by them that make him Arbitrator if he performe his Trust he is said to distribute to every man his own and this is indeed Just Distribution and may be called though improperly Distributive Justice but more properly Equity which also is a Law of Nature as shall be shewn in due place As Justice dependeth on Antecedent Covenant so does GRATITUDE depend on Antecedent Grace that is to say Antecedent Free-gift and is the fourth Law of Nature which may be conceived in this Forme That a man which receiveth Benefit from another of meer Grace Endeavour that he which giveth it have no reasonable cause to repent him of his good will For no man giveth but with intention of Good to himselfe because Gift is Voluntary and of all Voluntary Acts the Object is to every man his own Good of which if men see they shall be frustrated there will be no beginning of benevolence or trust nor consequently of mutuall help nor of reconciliation of one man to another and therefore they are to remain still in the condition of War which is contrary to the first and Fundamentall Law of Nature which commandeth men to Seck Peace The breach of this Law is called Ingratitude and hath the same relation to Grace that Injustice hath to Obligation by Covenant A fifth Law of Nature is COMPLEASANCE that is to say That every man strive to accommodate himselfe to the rest For the understanding whereof we may consider that there is in mens aptnesse to Society
yet if we consider the same Theoremes as delivered in the word of God that by right commandeth all things then are they properly called Lawes CHAP. XVI Of PERSONS AUTHORS and things Personated A PERSON is he whose words or actions are considered either as his own or as representing the words or actions of an other man or of any other thing to whom they are attributed whether Truly or by Fiction When they are considered as his owne then is he called a Naturall Person And when they are considered as representing the words and actions of an other then is he a Feigned or Artificiall person The word Person is latine insteed whereof the Greeks have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies the Face as Persona in latine signifies the disguise or outward appearance of a man counterfeited on the Stage and somtimes more particularly that part of it which disguiseth the face as a Mask or Visard And from the Stage hath been translated to any Representer of speech and action as well in Tribunalls as Theaters So that a Person is the same that an Actor is both on the Stage and in common Conversation and to Personate is to Act or Represent himselfe or an other and he that acteth another is said to beare his Person or act in his name in which sence Cicero useth it where he saies Unus sustineo tres Personas Mei Adversarii Judicis I beare three Persons my own my Adversaries and the Judges and is called in diverse occasions diversly as a Representer or Representative a Lieutenant a Vicar an Attorney a Deputy a Procurator an Actor and the like Of Persons Artificiall some have their words and actions Owned by those whom they represent And then the Person is the Actor and he that owneth his words and actions is the AUTHOR In which case the Actor acteth by Authority For that which in speaking of goods and possessions is called an Owner and in latine Dominus in Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã speaking of Actions is called Author And as the Right of possession is called Dominion so the Right of doing any Action is called AUTHORITY So that by Authority is alwayes understood a Right of doing any act and done by Authority done by Commssiion or Licence from him whose right it is From hence it followeth that when the Actor maketh a Covenant by Authority he bindeth thereby the Author no lesse than if he had made it himselfe and no lesse subjecteth him to all the consequences of the same And therfore all that hath been said formerly Chap. 14. of the nature of Covenants between man and man in their naturall capacity is true also when they are made by their Actors Representers or Procurators that have authority from them so far-forth as is in their Commission but no farther And therefore he that maketh a Covenant with the Actor or Representer not knowing the Authority he hath doth it at his own perill For no man is obliged by a Covenant whereof he is not Author nor consequently by a Covenant made against or beside the Authority he gave When the Actor doth any thing against the Law of Nature by command of the Author if he be obliged by former Covenant to obey him not he but the Author breaketh the Law of Nature for though the Action be against the Law of Nature yet it is not his but contrarily to refuse to do it is against the Law of Nature that forbiddeth breach of Covenant And he that maketh a Covenant with the Author by mediation of the Actor not knowing what Authority he hath but onely takes his word in case such Authority be not made manifest unto him upon demand is no longer obliged For the Covenant made with the Author is not valid without his Counter-assurance But if he that so Covenanteth knew before hand he was to expect no other assurance than the Actors word then is the Covenant valid because the Actor in this case maketh himselfe the Author And therefore as when the Authority is evident the Covenant obligeth the Author not the Actor so when the Authority is feigned it obligeth the Actor onely there being no Author but himselfe There are few things that are uncapable of being represented by Fiction Inanimate things as a Church an Hospital a Bridge may be Personated by a Rector Master or Overseer But things Inanimate cannot be Authors nor therefore give Authority to their Actors Yet the Actors may have Authority to procure their maintenance given them by those that are Owners or Governours of those things And therefore such things cannot be Personated before there be some state of Civill Government Likewise Children Fooles and Mad-men that have no use of Reason may be Personated by Guardians or Curators but can be no Authors during that time of any action done by them longer then when they shall recover the use of Reason they shall judge the same reasonable Yet during the Folly he that hath right of governing them may give Authority to the Guardian But this again has no place but in a State Civill because before such estate there is no Dominion of Persons An Idol or meer Figment of the brain may be Personated as were the Gods of the Heathen which by such Officers as the State appointed were Personated and held Possessions and other Goods and Rights which men from time to time dedicated and consecrated unto them But Idols cannot be Authors for an Idol is nothing The Authority proceeded from the State and therefore before introduction of Civill Government the Gods of the Heathen could not be Personated The true God may be Personated As he was first by Moses who governed the Israelites that were not his but Gods people not in his own name with Hoc dicit Moses but in Gods Name with Hoc dicit Dominus Secondly by the Son of man his own Son our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ that came to reduce the Jewes and induce all Nations into the Kingdome of his Father not as of himselfe but as sent from his Father And thirdly by the Holy Ghost or Comforter speaking and working in the Apostles which Holy Ghost was a Comforter that came not of himselfe but was sent and proceeded from them both A Multitude of men are made One Person when they are by one man or one Person Represented so that it be done with the consent of every one of that Multitude in particular For it is the Unity of the Representer not the Unity of the Represented that maketh the Person One. And it is the Representer that beareth the Person and but one Person And Unity cannot otherwise be understood in Multitude And because the Multitude naturally is not One but Many they cannot be understood for one but many Authors of every thing their Representative saith or doth in their name Every man giving their common Representer Authority from himselfe in particular
and owning all the actions the Representer doth in case they give him Authority without stint Otherwise when they limit him in what and how farre he shall represent them none of them owneth more than they gave him commission to Act. And if the Representative consist of many men the voyce of the greater number must be considered as the voyce of them all For if the lesser number pronounce for example in the Affirmative and the greater in the Negative there will be Negatives more than enough to destroy the Affirmatives and thereby the excesse of Negatives standing uncontradicted are the onely voyce the Representative hath And a Representative of even number especially when the number is not great whereby the contradictory voyces are oftentimes equall is therefore oftentimes mute and uncapable of Action Yet in some cases contradictory voyces equall in number may determine a question as in condemning or absolving equality of votes even in that they condemne not do absolve but not on the contrary condemne in that they absolve not For when a Cause is heard not to condemne is to absolve but on the contrary to say that not absolving is condemning is not true The like it is in a deliberation of executing presently or deferring till another time For when the voyces are equall the not decreeing Execution is a decree of Dilation Or if the number be odde as three or more men or assemblies whereof every one has by a Negative Voice authority to take away the effect of all the Affirmative Voices of the rest This number is no Representative because by the diversity of Opinions and Interests of men it becomes oftentimes and in cases of the greatest consequence a mute Person and unapt as for many things else so for the government of a Multitude especially in time of Warre Of Authors there be two sorts The first simply so called which I have before defined to be him that owneth the Action of another simply The second is he that owneth an Action or Covenant of another conditionally that is to say he undertaketh to do it if the other doth it not at or before a certain time And these Authors conditionall are generally called SURETYES in Latine Fidejussores and Sponsores and particularly for Debt Praedes and for Appearance before a Judge or Magistrate Vades OF COMMON-VVEALTH CHAP. XVII Of the Causes Generation and Definition of a COMMON-WEALTH THe finall Cause End or Designe of men who naturally love Liberty and Dominion over others in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves in which wee see them live in Common-wealths is the foresight of their own preservation and of a more contented life thereby that is to say of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of Warre which is necessarily consequent as hath been shewn to the naturall Passions of men when there is no visible Power to keep them in awe and tye them by feare of punishment to the performance of their Covenants and observation of those Lawes of Nature set down in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters For the Lawes of Nature as Justice Equity Modesty Mercy and in summe doing to others as wee would be done to of themselves without the terrour of some Power to cause them to be observed are contrary to our naturall Passions that carry us to Partiality Pride Revenge and the like And Covenants without the Sword are but Words and of no strength to secure a man at all Therefore notwithstanding the Lawes of Nature which every one hath then kept when he has the will to keep them when he can do it safely if there be no Power erected or not great enough for our security every man will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art for caution against all other men And in all places where men have lived by small Families to robbe and spoyle one another has been a Trade and so farre from being reputed against the Law of Nature that the greater spoyles they gained the greater was their honour and men observed no other Lawes thereââ¦n but the Lawes of Honour that is to abstain from cruelty leaving to men their lives and instruments of husbandry And as small Familyes did then so now do Cities and Kingdomes which are but greater Families for their own security enlarge their Dominions upon all pretences of danger and fear of Invasion or assistance that may be given to Invaders endeavour as much as they can to subdue or weaken their neighbours by open force and secret arts for want of other Caution justly and are remembred for it in after ages with honour Nor is it the joyning together of a small number of men that gives them this security because in small numbers small additions on the one side or the other make the advantage of strength so great as is sufficient to carry the Victory and therefore gives encouragement to an Invasion The Multitude sufficient to confide in for our Security is not determined by any certain number but by comparison with the Enemy we feare and is then sufficient when the odds of the Enemy is not of so visible and conspicuous moment to determine the event of warre as to move him to attempt And be there never so great a Multitude yet if their actions be directed according to their particular judgements and particular appetites they can expect thereby no defence nor protection neither against a Common enemy nor against the injuries of one another For being distracted in opinions concerning the best use and application of their strength they do not help but hinder one another and reduce theiâ⦠strength by mutuall opposition to nothing whereby they are easily not onely subdued by a very few that agree together but also when there is no common enemy they make warre upon each other for their particular interests For if we could suppose a great Multitude of men to consent in the observation of Justice and other Lawes of Nature without a common Power to keep them all in awe we might as well suppose all Man-kind to do the same and then there neither would be nor need to be any Civill Government or Common-wealth at all because there would be Peace without subjection Nor is it enough for the security which men desire should last all the time of their life that they be governed and directed by one judgement for a limited time as in one Battell or one Warre For though they obtain a Victory by their unanimous endeavour against a forraign enemy yet afterwards when either they have no common enemy or he that by one part is held for an enemy is by another part held for a friend they must needs by the difference of their interests dissolve and fall again into a Warre amongst themselves It is true that certain living creatures as Bees and Ants live sociably one with another which are therefore by Aristotle numbred amongst Politicall creatures and
to be regarded but the Truth yet this is not repugnant to regulating of the same by Peace For Doctrine repugnant to Peace can no more be True than Peace and Concord can be against the Law of Nature It is true that in a Common-wealth where by the negligence or unskilfullnesse of Governours and Teachers false Doctrines are by time generally received the contrary Truths may be generally offensive Yet the most sudden and rough busling in of a new Truth that can be does never breake the Peace but only somtimes awake the Warre For those men that are so remissely governed that they dare take up Armes to defend or introduce an Opinion are still in Warre and their condition not Peace but only a Cessation of Armes for feare of one another and they live as it were in the procincts of battaile continually It belongeth therefore to him that hath the Soveraign Power to be Judge or constitute all Judges of Opinions and Doctrines as a thing necessary to Peace therby to prevent Discord and Civill Warre Seventhly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the whole power of prescribing the Rules whereby every man may know what Goods he may enjoy and what Actions he may doe without being molested by any of his fellow Subjects And this is it men call Propriety For before constitution of Soveraign Power as hath already been shewn all men had right to all things which necessarily causeth Warre and therefore this Proprietie being necessary to Peace and depending on Soveraign Power is the Act of that Power in order to the publique peace These Rules of Propriety or Meum and Tuum and of Good Evill Lawfull and Unlawfull in the actions of Subjects are the Civill Lawes that is to say the Lawes of each Common-wealth in particular though the name of Civill Law be now restrained to the antient Civill Lawes of the City of Rome which being the head of a great part of the World her Lawes at that time were in these parts the Civill Law Eightly is annexed to the Soveraigntie the Right of Judicature that is to say of hearing and deciding all Controversies which may arise concerning Law either Civill or Naturall or concerning Fact For without the decision of Controversies there is no protection of one Subject against the injuries of another the Lawes concerning Meum and Tuum are in vaine and to every man remaineth from the naturall and necessary appetite of his own conservation the right of protecting himselfe by his private strength which is the condition of Warre and contrary to the end for which every Common-wealth is instituted Ninthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the Right of making Warre and Peace with other Nations and Common-wealths that is to say of Judging when it is for the publique good and how great forces are to be assembled armed and payd for that end and to levy mony upon the Subjects to defray the expences thereof For the Power by which the people are to be defended consisteth in their Armies and the strength of an Army in the union of their strength under one Command which Command the Soveraign Instituted therefore hath because the command of the Militia without other Institution maketh him that hath it Soveraign And therefore whosoever is made Generall of an Army he that hath the Soveraign Power is alwayes Generallissimo Tenthly is annexed to the Soveraignty the choosing of all Counsellours Ministers Magistrates and Officers both in Peace and War For seeing the Soveraign is charged with the End which is the common Peace and Defence he is understood to have Power to use such Means as he shall think most fit for his discharge Eleventhly to the Soveraign is committed the Power of Rewarding with riches or honour and of Punishing with corporall or pecuniary punishment or with ignominy every Subject according to the Law he hath formerly made or if there be no Law made according as he shall judge most to conduce to the encouraging of men to serve the Common-wealth or deterring of them from doing dis-service to the same Lastly considering what values men are naturally apt to set upon themselves what respect they look for from others and how little they value other men from whence continually arise amongst them Emulation Quarrells Factions and at last Warre to the destroying of one another and diminution of their strength against a Common Enemy It is necessary that there be Lawes of Honour and a publique rate of the worth of such men as have deserved or are able to deserve well of the Common-wealth and that there be force in the hands of some or other to put those Lawes in execution But it hath already been shewn that not onely the whole Militia or forces of the Common-wealth but also the Judicature of all Controversies is annexed to the Soveraignty To the Soveraign therefore it belongeth also to give titles of Honour and to appoint what Order of place and dignity each man shall hold and what signes of respect in publique or private meetings they shall give to one another These are the Rights which make the Essence of Soveraignty and which are the markes whereby a man may discern in what Man or Assembly of men the Soveraign Power is placed and resideth For these are incommunicable and inseparable The Power to coyn Mony to dispose of the estate and persons of Infant heires to have praeemption in Markets and all other Statute Praerogatives may be transferred by the Soveraign and yet the Power to protect his Subjects be retained But if he transferre the Militia he retains the Judicature in vain for want of execution of the Lawes Or if he grant away the Power of raising Mony the Militia is in vain or if he give away the government of Doctrines men will be frighted into rebellion with the feare of Spirits And so if we consider any one of the said Rights we shall presently see that the holding of all the rest will produce no effect in the conservation of Peace and Justice the end for which all Common-wealths are Instituted And this division is it whereof it is said a Kingdome divided in it selfe cannot stand For unlesse this division precede division into opposite Armies can never happen If there had not first been an opinion received of the greatest part of England that these Powers were divided between the King and the Lords and the House of Commons the people had never been divided and fallen into this Civill Warre first between those that disagreed in Politiques and after between the Dissenters about the liberty of Religion which have so instructed men in this point of Soveraign Right that there be few now in England that do not see that these Rights are inseparable and will be so generally acknowledged at the next return of Peace and so continue till their miseries are forgotten and no longer except the vulgar be better taught than they have hetherto been And because they are essentiall
without contradiction passing for the title of those men which at his command were sent up by the people to carry their Petitions and give him if he permitted it their advise Which may serve as an admonition for those that are the true and absolute Representative of a People to instruct men in the nature of that Office and to take heed how they admit of any other generall Representation upon any occasion whatsoever if they mean to discharge the ãâã committed to them The difference between these three kindes of Common-wealth consisteth not in the difference of Power but in the difference of Convenience or Aptitude to produce the Peace and Security of the people for which end they were instituted And to compare Monarchy with the other two we may observe First that whosoeuer beareth the Person of the people or is one of that Assembly that bears it ãâã also his own naturall Person And though he be carefull in his politique Person to procure the common interest yet he is more or no lesse carefull to procure the private good of himselfe his family kindred and friends and for the most part if the publique interest chance to crosse the private he preferrs the private for the Passions of men are commonly more potent than their Reason From whence it follows that where the publique and private interest are most closely united there is the publique most advanced Now in Monarchy the private interest is the same with the publique The riches power and honour of a Monarch arise onely from the riches strength and reputation of his Subjects For no King can be rich nor glorious nor secure whose Subjects are either poore or contemptible or too weak through want or dissention to maintain a war against their enemies Whereas in a Democracy or Aristocracy the publique prosperity conferres not so much to the private fortune of one that is corrupt or ambitious as doth many times a perfidious advice a treacherous action or a Civill warre Secondly that a Monarch receiveth counsell of whom when and where he pleaseth and consequently may heare the opinion of men versed in the matter about which he deliberates of what rank or quality soever and as long before the time of action and with as much secrecy as he will But when a Soveraigne Assembly has need of Counsell none are admitted but such as have a Right thereto from the beginning which for the most part are of those who have beene versed more in the acquisition of Wealth than of Knowledge and are to give their advice in long discourses which may and do commonly excite men to action but not governe them in it For the Understanding is by the flame of the Passions never enlightned but dazled Nor is there any place or time wherein an Assemblie can receive Counsell with secrecie because of their owne Multitude Thirdly that the Resolutions of a Monarch are subject to no other Inconstancy than that of Humane Nature but in Assemblies besides that of Nature there ariseth an Inconstancy from the Number For the absence of a few that would have the Resolution once taken continue firme which may happen by security negligence or private impediments or the diligent appearance of a few of the contrary opinion undoes to day all that was concluded yesterday Fourthly that a Monarch cannot disagree with himselfe out of envy or interest but an Assembly may and that to such a height as may produce a Civill Warre Fifthly that in Monarchy there is this inconvenience that any Subject by the power of one man for the enriching of a favourite or flatterer may be deprived of all he possesseth which I confesse is a great and inevitable inconvenience But the same may as well happen where the Soveraigne Power is in an Assembly For their power is the same and they are as subject to evill Counsell and to be seduced by Orators as a Monarch by Flatterers and becoming one an others Flatterers serve one anothers Covetousnesse and Ambition by turnes And whereas the Favorites of Monarchs are few and they have none els to advance but their owne Kindred the Favorites of an Assembly are many and the Kindred much more numerous than of any Monarch Besides there is no Favourite of a Monarch which cannot as well succour his friends as hurt his enemies But Orators that is to say Favourites of Soveraigne Assemblies though they have great power to hurt have little to save For to accuse requires lesse Eloquence such is mans Nature than to excuse and condemnation than absolution more resembles Justice Sixtly that it is an inconvenience in Monarchie that the Soveraigntie may descend upon an Infant or one that cannot discerne between Good and Evill and consisteth in this that the use of his Power must be in the hand of another Man or of some Assembly of men which are to governe by his right and in his name as Curators and Protectors of his Person and Authority But to say there is inconvenience in putting the use of the Soveraign Power into the hand of a Man or an Assembly of men is to say that all Government is more Inconvenient than Confusion and Civill Warre And therefore all the danger that can be pretended must arise from the Contention of those that for an office of so great honour and profit may become Competitors To make it appear that this inconvenience proceedeth not from that forme of Government we call Monarchy we are to consider that the precedent Monarch hath appointed who shall have the Tuition of his Infant Successor either expressely by Testament or tacitly by not controlling the Custome in that case received And then such inconvenience if it happen is to be attributed not to the Monarchy but to the Ambition and Injustice of the Subjects which in all kinds of Government where the people are not well instructed in their Duty and the Rights of Soveraignty is the same Or else the precedent Monarch hath not at all taken order for such Tuition And then the Law of Nature hath provided this sufficient rule That the Tuition shall be in him that hath by Nature most interest in the preservation of the Authority of the Infant and to whom least benefit can accrue by his death or diminution For seeing every man by nature seeketh his own benefit and promotion to put an Infant into the power of those that can promote themselves by his destruction or dammage is not Tuition but Trechery So that sufficient provision being taken against all just quarrell about the Government under a Child if any contention arise to the disturbance of the publique Peace it is not to be attributed to the forme of Monarchy but to the ambition of Subjects and ignorance of their Duty On the other side there is no great Common-wealth the Soveraignty whereof is in a great Assembly which is not as to consultations of Peace and Warre and making of Lawes in the same condition as if the Government
were in a Child For as a Child wants the judgement to dissent from counsell given him and is thereby necessitated to take the advise of them or him to whom he is committed So an Assembly wanteth the liberty to dissent from the counsell of the major part be it good or bad And as a Child has need of a Tutor or Protector to preserve his Person and Authority So also in great Common-wealths the Soveraign Assembly in all great dangers and troubles have need of Custodes libertatis that is of Dictators or Protectors of their Authoritie which are as much as Temporary Monarchs to whom for a time they may commit the entire exercise of their Power and have at the end of that time been oftner deprived thereof than Infant Kings by their Protectors Regents or any other Tutors Though the Kinds of Soveraigntie be as I have now shewn but three that is to say Monarchie where One Man has it or Democracie where the generall Assembly of Subjects hath it or Aristocracie where it is in an Assembly of certain persons nominated or otherwise distinguished from the rest Yet he that shall consider the particular Common-wealthes that have been and are in the world will not perhaps easily reduce them to three and may thereby be inclined to think there be other Formes arising from these mingled together As for example Elective Kingdomes where Kings have the Soveraigne Power put into their hands for a time or Kingdomes wherein the King hath a power limited which Governments are nevertheles by most Writers called Monarchie Likewise if a Popular or Aristocraticall Common-wealth subdue an Enemies Countrie and govern the same by a President Procurator or other Magistrate this may seeme perhaps at first sight to be a Democraticall or Aristocraticall Government But it is not so For Elective Kings are not Soveraignes but Ministers of the Soveraigne nor limited Kings Soveraignes but Ministers of them that have the Soveraigne Power Nor are those Provinces which are in subjection to a Democracie or Aristocracie of another Common-wealth Democratically or Aristocratically governed but Monarchically And ââ¦irst concerning an Elective King whose power is limited to his life as it is in many places of Christendome at this day or to certaine Yeares or Moneths as the Dictators power amongst the Romans If he have Right to appoint his Successor he is no more Elective but Hereditary But if he have no Power to elect his Successor then there is some other Man or Assembly known which after his decease may elect a new or else the Common-wealth dieth and dissolveth with him and returneth to the condition of Warre If it be known who have the power to give the Soveraigntie after his death it is known also that the Soveraigntie was in them before For none have right to give that which they have not right to possesse and keep to themselves it they think good But if there be none that can give the Soveraigntie after the decease of him that was first elected then has he power nay he is obliged by the Law of Nature to provide by establishing his Successor to keep those that had trusted him with the Government from relapsing into the miserable condition of Civill warre And consequently he was when elected a Soveraign absolute Secondly that King whose power is limited is not superiour to him or them that have the power to limit it and he that is not superiour is not supreme that is to say not Soveraign The Soveraignty therefore was alwaies in that Assembly which had the Right to Limit him and by consequence the government not Monarchy but either Democracy or Aristocracy as of old time in Sparta where the Kings had a priviledge to lead their Armies but the Soveraignty was in the Ephori Thirdly whereas heretofore the Roman People governed the land of Judea for example by a President yet was not Judea therefore a Democracy because they were not governed by any Assembly into the which any of them had right to enter nor by an Aristocracy because they were not governed by any Assembly into which any man could enter by their Election but they were governed by one Person which though as to the people of Rome was an Assembly of the people or Democracy yet as to people of Judea which had no right at all of participating in the government was a Monarch For though where the people are governed by an Assembly chosen by themselves out of their own number the government is called a Democracy or Aristocracy yet when they are governed by an Assembly not of their own choosing 't is a Monarchy not of One man over another man but of one people over another people Of all these Formes of Government the matter being mortall so that not onely Monarchs but also whole Assemblies dy it is necessary for the conservation of the peace of men that as there was order taken for an Artificiall Man so there be order also taken for an Artificiall Eternity of life without which men that are governed by an Assembly should return into the condition of Warre in every age and they that are governed by One man assoon as their Governour dyeth This Artificiall Eternity is that which men call the Right of Succession There is no perfect forme of Government where the disposing of the Succession is not in the present Soveraign For if it be in any other particular Man or private Assembly it is in a person subject and may be assumed by the Soveraign at his pleasure and consequently the Right is in himselfe And if it be in no particular man but left to a new choyce then is the Common-wealth dissolved and the Right is in him that can get it contrary to the intention of them that did Institute the Common-wealth for their perpetuall and not temporary security In a Democracy the whole Assembly cannot faile unlesse the Multitude that are to be governed faile And therefore questions of the right of Succession have in that forme of Government no place at all In an Aristocracy when any of the Assembly dyeth the election of another into his room belongeth to the Assembly as the Soveraign to whom belongeth the choosing of all Counsellours and Officers For that which the Representative doth as Actor every one of the Subjects doth as Author And though the Soveraign Assembly may give Power to others to elect new men for supply of their Court yet it is still by their Authority that the Election is made and by the same it may when the publique shall require it be recalled The greatest difficultie about the right of Succession is in Monarchy And the difficulty ariseth from this that at first sight it is not manifest who is to appoint the Successor nor many times who it is whom he hath appointed For in both these cases there is required a more exact ratiocination than every man is accustomed to use As to the question who shall appoint the Successor of
Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty are the same in both His Power cannot without his consent be Transferred to another He cannot Forfeit it He cannot be Accused by any of his Subjects of Injury He cannot be Punished by them He is Judge of what is necessary for Peace and Judge of Doctrines He is Sole Legislator and Supreme Judge of Controversies and of the Times and Occasions of Warre and Peace to him it belongeth to choose Magistrates Counsellours Commanders and all other Officers and Ministers and to determine of Rewards and Punishments Honour and Order The reasons whereof are the same which are alledged in the precedent Chapter for the same Rights and Consequences of Soveraignty by Institution Dominion is acquired two wayes By Generation and by Conquest The right of Dominion by Generation is that which the Parent hath over his Children and is called PATERNALL And is not so derived from the Generation as if therefore the Parent had Dominion over his Child because he begat him but from the Childs Consent either expresse or by other sufficient arguments declared For as to the Generation God hath ordained to man a helper and there be alwayes two that are equally Parents the Dominion therefore over the Child should belong equally to both and he be equally subject to both which is impossible for no man can obey two Masters And whereas some have attributed the Dominion to the Man onely as being of the more excellent Sex they misreckon in it For there is not alwayes that difference of strength or prudence between the man and the woman as that the right can be determined without War In Common-wealths this controversie in decided by the Civill Law and for the most part but not alwayes the sentence is in favour of the Father because for the most part Common-wealths have been erected by the Fathers not by the Mothers of families But the question lyeth now in the state of meer Nature where there are supposed no lawes of Matrimony no lawes for the Education of Children but the Law of Nature and the naturall inclination of the Sexes one to another and to their children In this condition of meer Nature either the Parents between themselves dispose of the dominion over the Child by Contract or do not dispose thereof at all If they dispose thereof the right passeth according to the Contract We find in History that the Amazons Contracted with the Men of the neighbouring Countries to whom they had recourse for issue that the issue Male should be sent back but the Female remain with themselves so that the dominion of the Females was in the Mother If there be no Contract the Dominion is in the Mother For in the condition of meer Nature where there are no Matrimoniall lawes it cannot be known who is the Father unlesse it be delared by the Mother and therefore the right of Dominion over the Child dependeth on her will and is consequently hers Again seeing the Infant is first in the power of the Mother so as she may either nourish or expose it if she nourish it it oweth its life to the Mother and is therefore obliged to obey her rather than any other and by consequence the Dominion over it is hers But if she expose it and another find and nourish it the Dominion is in him that nourisheth it For it ought to obey him by whom it is preserved because preservation of life being the end for which one man becomes subject to another every man is supposed to promise obedience to him in whose power it is to save or destroy him If the Mother be the Fathers subject the Child is in the Fathers power and if the Father be the Mothers subject as when a Soveraign Queen marrieth one of her subjects the Child is subject to the Mother because the Father also is her subject If a man and a woman Monarches of two severall Kingdomes have a Child and contract concerning who shall have the Dominion of him the Right of the Dominion passeth by the Contract If they contract not the Dominion followeth the Dominion of the place of his residence For the Soveraign of each Country hath Dominion over all that reside therein He that hath the Dominion over the Child hath Dominion also over the Children of the Child and over their Childrens Children For he that hath Dominion over the person of a man hath Dominion over all that is his without which Dominion were but a Title without the effect The Right of Succession to Paternall Dominion proceedeth in the same manner as doth the Right of Succession to Monarchy of which I have already sufficiently spoken in the precedent chapter Dominion acquired by Conquest or Victory in war is that which some Writers call DESPOTICALL from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifieth a Lord or Master and is the Dominion of the Master over his Servant And this Dominion is then acquired to the Victor when the Vanquished to avoyd the present stroke of death covenanteth either in expresse words or by other sufficient signes of the Will that so long as his life and the liberty of his body is allowed him the Victor shall have the use thereof at his pleasure And after such Covenant made the Vanquished is a SERVANT and not before for by the word Servant whether it be derived from Servire to Serve or from Servare to Save which I leave to Grammarians to dispute is not meant a Captive which is kept in prison or bonds till the owner of him that took him or bought him of one that did shall consider what to do with him for such men commonly called Slaves have no obligation at all but may break their bonds or the prison and kill or carry away captive their Master justly but one that being taken hath corporall liberty allowed him and upon promise not to run away nor to do violence to his Master is trusted by him It is not therefore the Victory that giveth the right of Dominion over the Vanquished but his own Covenant Nor is he obliged because he is Conquered that is to say beaten and taken or put to flight but because he commeth in and Submitteth to the Victor Nor is the Victor obliged by an enemies rendring himselfe without promise of life to spare him for this his yeelding to discretion which obliges not the Victor longer than in his own discretion hee shall think fit And that which men do when they demand as it is now called Quarter which the Greeks called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã taking alive is to evade the present fury of the Victor by Submission and to compound for their life with Ransome or Service and therefore he that hath Quarter hath not his life given but deferred till farther deliberation For it is not an yeelding on condition of life but to discretion And then onely is his life in security and his service due when the Victor hath trusted
of themselves thereby have made an Artificiall Man which we call a Common-wealth so also have they made Artificiall Chains called Civill Lawes which they themselves by mutuall covenants have fastned at one end to the lips of that Man or Assembly to whom they have given the Soveraigne Power and at the other end to their own Ears These Bonds in their own nature but weak may neverthelesse be made to hold by the danger though not by the difficulty of breaking them In relation to these Bonds only it is that I am to speak now of the Liberty of Subjects For seeing there is no Common-wealth in the world wherein there be Rules enough set down for the regulating of all the actions and words of men as being a thing impossible it followeth necessarily that in all kinds of actions by the laws praetermitted men have the Liberty of doing what their own reasons shall suggest for the most profitable to themselves For if wee take Liberty in the proper sense for corporall Liberty that is to say freedome from chains and prison it were very absurd for men to clamor as they doe for the Liberty they so manifestly enjoy Againe if we take Liberty for an exemption from Lawes it is no lesse absurd for men to demand as they doe that Liberty by which all other men may be masters of their lives And yet as absurd as it is this is it they demand not knowing that the Lawes are of no power to protect them without a Sword in the hands of a man or men to cause those laws to be put in execution The Liberty of a Subject lyeth therefore only in those things which in regulating their actions the Soveraign hath praetermitted such as is the Liberty to buy and sell and otherwise contract with one another to choose their own aboad their own diet their own trade of life and institute their children as they themselves think fit the like Neverthelesse we are not to understand that by such Liberty the Soveraign Power of life and death is either abolished or limited For it has been already shewn that nothing the Soveraign Representative can doe to a Subject on what pretence soever can properly be called Injustice or Injury because every Subject is Author of every act the Soveraign doth so that he never wanteth Right to any thing otherwise than as he himself is the Subject of God and bound thereby to observe the laws of Nature And therefore it may and doth often happen in Common-wealths that a Subject may be put to death by the command of the Soveraign Power and yet neither doe the other wrong As when Jeptha caused his daughter to be sacrificed In which and the like cases he that so dieth had Liberty to doe the action for which he is neverthelesse without Injury put to death And the same holdeth also in a Soveraign Prince that putteth to death an Innocent Subject For though the action be against the law of Nature as being contrary to Equitie as was the killing of Uriah by David yet it was not an Injurie to Uriah but to God Not to Uriah because the right to doe what he pleased was given him by Uriah himself And yet to God because David was Gods Subject and prohibited all Iniquitie by the law of Nature Which distinction David himself when he repented the fact evidently confirmed saying To thee only have I sinned In the same manner the people of Athens when they ââ¦anished the most potent of their Common-wealth for ten years thought they committed no Injustice and yet they never questioned what crime he had done but what hurt he would doe Nay they commanded the banishment of they knew not whom and every Citizen bringing his Oystershell into the market place written with the name of him he desired should be banished without actuall accusing him sometimes banished an Aristides for his reputation of Justice And sometimes a scurrilous Jester as Hyperbolus to make a Jest of it And yet a man cannot say the Soveraign People of Athens wanted right to banish them or an Athenian the Libertie to Jest or to be Just. The Libertie whereof there is so frequent and honourable mention in the Histories and Philosophy of the Antient Greeks and Romans and in the writings and discourse of those that from them have received all their learning in the Politiques is not the Libertie of Particular men but the Libertie of the Common-wealth which is the same with that which every man then should have if there were no Civil Laws nor Common-wealth at all And the effects of it also be the same For as amongst masterlesse men there is perpetuall war of every man against his neighbour no inheritance to transmit to the Son nor to expect from the Father no propriety of Goods or Lands no security but a full and absolute Libertie in every Particular man So in States and Common-wealths not dependent on one another every Common-wealth not every man has an absolute Libertie to doe what it shall judge that is to say what that Man or Assemblie that representeth it shall judge most conducing to their benefit But withall they live in the condition of a perpetuall war and upon the confines of battel with their frontiers armed and canons planted against their neighbours round about The Athenians and Romanes were free that is free Common-wealths not that any particular men had the Libertie to resist their own Representative but that their Representative had the Libertie to resist or invade other people There is written on the Turrets of the city of Luca in great characters at this day the word LIBERTAS yet no man can thence inferre that a particular man has more Libertie or Immunitie from the service of the Commonwealth there than in Constantinople Whether a Common-wealth be Monarchicall or Popular the Freedome is still the same But it is an easy thing for men to be deceived by the specious name of Libertie and for want of Judgement to distinguish mistake that for their Private Inheritance and Birth right which is the right of the Publique only And when the same errour is confirmed by the authority of men in reputation for their writings in this subject it is no wonder if it produce sedition and change of Government In these westerne parts of the world we are made to receive our opinions concerning the Institution and Rights of Common-wealths from Aristotle Cicero and other men Greeks and Romanes that living under Popular States derived those Rights not from the Principles of Nature but transcribed them into their books out of the Practise of their own Common-wealths which were Popular as the Grammarians describe the Rules of Language out of the Practise of the time or the Rules of Poetry out of the Poems of Homer and Virgil. And because the Athenians were taught to keep them from desire of changing their Government that they were Freemen and all that lived under Monarchy were slaves
Intention is evill or if the number be considerable unknown they are Unlawfull In Bodies Politique the power of the Representative is alwaies Limited And that which prescribeth the Limits thereof is the Power Soveraign For Power Unlimited is absolute Soveraignty And the Soveraign in every Commonwealth is the absolute Representative of all the subjects and therefore no other can be Representative of any part of them but so far forth as he shall give leave And to give leave to a Body Politique of Subjects to have an absolute Representative to all intents and purposes were to abandon the government of so much of the Commonwealth and to divide the Dominion contrary to their Peace and Defence which the Soveraign cannot be understood to doe by any Grant that does not plainly and directly discharge them of their subjection For consequences of words are not the signes of his will when other consequences are signes of the contrary but rather signes of errour and misreckonning to which all mankind is too prone The bounds of that Power which is given to the Representative of a Bodie Politique are to be taken notice of from two things One is their Writt or Letters from the Soveraign the other is the Law of the Common-wealth For though in the Institution or Acquisition of a Common-wealth which is independent there needs no Writing because the Power of the Representative has there no other bounds but such as are set out by the unwritten Law of Nature yet in subordinate bodies there are such diversities of Limitation necessary concerning their businesses times and places as can neither be remembred without Letters nor taken notice of unlesse such Letters be Patent that they may be read to them and withall sealed or testified with the Seales or other permanent signes of the Authority Soveraign And because such Limitation is not alwaies easie or perhaps possible to be described in writing the ordinary Lawes common to all Subjects must determine what the Representative may lawfully do in all Cases where the Letters themselves are silent And therefore In a Body Politique if the Representative be one man whatsoever he does in the Person of the Body which is not warranted in his Letters nor by the Lawes is his own act and not the act of the Body nor of any other Member thereof besides himselfe Because further than his Letters or the Lawes limit he representeth no mans person but his own But what he does according to these is the act of every one For of the Act of the Soveraign every one is Author because he is their Representative unlimited and the act of him that recedes not from the Letters of the Soveraign is the act of the Soveraign and therefore every member of the Body is Author of it But if the Representative be an Assembly whatsoever that Assembly shall Decree not warranted by their Letters or the Lawes is the act of the Assembly or Body Politique and the act of every one by whose Vote the Decree was made but not the act of any man that being present Voted to the contrary nor of any man absent unlesse he Voted it by procuration It is the act of the Assembly because Voted by the major part and if it be a crime the Assembly may be punished as farre-forth as it is capable as by dissolution or forfeiture of their Letters which is to such artificiall and fictitious Bodies capitall or if the Assembly have a Common stock wherein none of the Innocent Members have propriety by pecuniary Mulct For from corporall penalties Nature hath exempted all Bodies Politique But they that gave not their Vote are therefore Innocent because the Assembly cannot Represent any man in things unwarranted by their Letters and consequently are involved in their Votes If the person of the Body Politique being in one man borrow mony of a stranger that is of one that is not of the same Body for no Letters need limit borrowing seeing it is left to mens own inclinations to limit lending the debt is the Representatives For if he should have Authority from his Letters to make the members pay what he borroweth he should have by consequence the Soveraignty of them and therefore the grant were either voyd as proceeding from Errour commonly incident to humane Nature and an unsufficient signe of the will of the Granter or if it be avowed by him then is the Representer Soveraign and falleth not under the present question which is onely of Bodies subordinate No member therefore is obliged to pay the debt so borrowed but the Representative himselfe because he that lendeth it being a stranger to the Letters and to the qualification of the Body understandeth those onely for his debtors that are engaged and seeing the Representer can ingage himselfe and none else has him onely for Debtor who must therefore pay him out of the common stock if there be any or if there be none out of his own estate If he come into debt by Contract or Mulct the case is the same But when the Representative is an Assembly and the debt to a stranger all they and onely they are responsible for the debt that gave their votes to the borrowing of it or to the Contract that made it due or to the fact for which the Mulct was imposed because every one of those in voting did engage himselfe for the payment For he that is author of the borrowing is obliged to the payment even of the whole debt though when payd by any one he be discharged But if the debt be to one of the Assembly the Assembly onely is obliged to the payment out of their common stock if they have any For having liberty of Vote if he Vote the Mony shall be borrowed he Votes it shall be payd If he Vote if shall not be borrowed or be absent yet because in lending he voteth the borrowing he contradicteth his former Vote and is obliged by the later and becomes both borrower and lender and consequently cannot demand payment from any particular man but from the common Treasure onely which fayling he hath no remedy nor complaint but against himselfe that being privy to the acts of the Assembly and to their means to pay and not being enforced did neverthelesse through his own folly lend his mony It is manifest by this that in Bodies Politique subordinate and subject to a Soveraign Power it is sometimes not onely lawfull but expedient for a particular man to make open protestation against the decrees of the Representative Assembly and cause their dissent to be Registred or to take witnesse of it because otherwise they may be obliged to pay debts contracted and be responsible for crimes committed by other men But in a Soveraign Assembly that liberty is taken away both because he that protesteth there denies their Soveraignty and also because whatsoever is commanded by the Soverign Power is as to the Subject though not so alwayes
the Plenty and Distribution of Materials conducing to Life In Concoction or Preparation and when concocted in the Conveyance of it by convenient conduits to the Publique use As for the Plenty of Matter it is a thing limited by Nature to those commodities which from the two breasts of our common Mother Land and Sea God usually either freely giveth or for labour selleth to man-kind For the Matter of this Nutriment consisting in Animals Vegetals and Minerals God hath freely layd them before us in or neer to the face of the Earth so as there needeth no more but the labour and industry of receiving them Insomuch as Plenty dependeth next to Gods favour meerly on the labour and industry of men This Matter commonly called Commodities is partly Native and partly Forraign Native that which is to be had within the Territory of the Common-wealth Forraign that which is imported from without And because there is no Territory under the Dominion of one Common-wealth except it be of very vast extent that produceth all things needfull for the maintenance and motion of the whole Body and few that produce not something more than necessary the superfluous commodities to be had within become no more superfluous but supply these wants at home by importation of that which may be had abroad either by Exchange or by just Warre or by Labour for a mans Labour also is a commodity exchangeable for benefit as well as any other thing And there have been Common-wealths that having no more Territory than hath served them for habitation have neverthelesse not onely maintained but also encreased their Power partly by the labour of trading from one place to another and partly by selling the Manifactures whereof the Materials were brought in from other places The Distribution of the Materials of this Nourishment is the constitution of Mine and Thine and His that is to say in one word Propriety and belongeth in all kinds of Common-wealth to the Soveraign Power For where there is no Common-wealth there is as hath been already shewn a perpetuall warre of every man against his neighbour And therefore every thing is his that getteth it and keepeth it by force which is neither Propriety nor Community but Uncertainty Which is so evident that even Cicero a passionate defender of Liberty in a publique pleading attributeth all Propriety to the Law Civil Let the Civill Law saith he be once abandoned or but negligently guarded not to say oppressed and there is nothing that any man can be sure to receive from his Ancestor or leave to his Children And again Take away the Civill Law and no man knows what is his own and what another mans Seeing therefore the Introduction of Propriety is an effect of Common-wealth which can do nothing but by the Person that Represents iâ⦠it is the act onely of the Soveraign and consisteth in the Lawes which none can make that have not the Soveraign Power And this they well knew of old who called that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say Distribution which we call Law and defined Justice by distributing to every man his own In this Distribution the First Law is for Division of the Land it selfe wherein the Soveraign assigneth to every man a portion according as he and not according as any Subject or any number of them shall judge agreeable to Equity and the Common Good The Children of Israel were a Common-wealth in the Wildernesse but wanted the commodities of the Earth till they were masters of the Land of Promise which afterward was divided amongst them not by their own discretion but by the discretion of Eleazar the Priest and Joshua their Generall who when there were twelve Tribes making them thirteen by subdivision of the Tribe of Joseph made neverthelesse but twelve portions of the Land and ordained for the Tribe of Levi no land but assigned them the Tenth part of the whole fruits which division was therefore Arbitrary And though a People comming into possession of a Land by warre do not alwaies exterminate the antient Inhabitants as did the Jewes but leave to many or most or all of them their Estates yet it is manifest they hold them afterwards as of the Victors distribution as the people of England held all theirs of William the Conquerour From whence we may collect that the Propriety which a subject hath in his lands consisteth in a right to exclude all other subjects from the use of them and not to exclude their Soveraign be it an Assembly or a Monarch For seeing the Soveraign that is to say the Common-wealth whose Person he representeth is understood to do nothing but in order to the common Peace and Security this Distribution of lands is to be understod as done in order to the same And consequently whatsoever Distribution he shall make in prejudice thereof is contrary to the will of every subject that committed his Peace and safety to his discretion and conscience and therefore by the will of every one of them is to be reputed voyd It is true that a Soveraign Monarch or the greater part of a Soveraign Assembly may ordain the doing of many things in pursuit of their Passions contrary to their own consciences which is a breach of trust and of the Law of Nature but this is not enough to authorise any subject either to make warre upon or so much as to accuse of Injustice or any way to speak evill of their Soveraign because they have authorised all his actions and in bestowing the Soveraign Power made them their own But in what cases the Commands of Soveraigns are contrary to Equity and the Law of Nature is to be considered hereafter in another place In the Distribution of land the Common-wealth it selfe may bâ⦠conceived to have a portion and possesse and improve the same by their Representative and that such portion may be made sufficient to susteine the whole expence to the common Peace and defence necessarily required Which were very true if there could be any Representative conceived free from humane passions and infirmities But the nature of men being as it is the setting forth of Publique Land or of any certaine Revenue for the Common-wealth is in vaine and tendeth to the dissolution of Government and to the condition of meere Nature and War assoon as ever the Soveraign Power falleth into the hands of a Monarch or of an Assembly that are either too negligent of mony or too hazardous in engaging the publique stock into a long or costly war Common-wealths can endure no Diet For seeing their expence is not limited by their own appetite but by externall Accidents and the appetites of their neighbours the Publique Riches cannot be limited by other limits than those which the emergent occasions shall require And whereas in England there were by the Conquerour divers Lands reserved to his own use besides Forrests and Chases either for his recreation or for preservation of
he observe it not And to speak properly that Law is no Law to him It is therefore necessary to consider in this place what arguments and signes be sufficient for the knowledge of what is the Law that is to say what is the will of the Soveraign as well in Monarchies as in other formes of government And first if it be a Law that obliges all the Subjects without exception and is not written nor otherwise published in such places as they may take notice thereof it is a Law of Nature For whatsoever men are to take knowledge of for Law not upon other mens words but every one from his own reason must be such as is agreeable to the reason of all men which no Law can be but the Law of Nature The Lawes of Nature therefore need not any publishing nor Proclamation as being contained in this one Sentence approved by all the world Do not that to another which thou thinkest unreasonable to be done by another to thy selfe Secondly if it be a Law that obliges only some condition of men or one particular man and be not written nor published by word then also it is a Law of Nature and known by the same arguments and signs that distinguish those in such a condition from other Subjects For whatsoever Law is not written or some way published by him that makes it Law can be known no way but by the reason of him that is to obey it and is therefore also a Law not only Civill but Naturall For Example if the Soveraign employ a Publique Minister without written Instructions what to doe he is obliged to take for Instructions the Dictates of Reason As if he make a Judge The Judge is to take notice that his Sentence ought to be according to the reason of his Soveraign which being alwaies understood to be Equity he is bound to it by the Law of Nature Or if an Ambassador he is in all things not conteined in his written Instructions to take for Instruction that which Reason dictates to be most conducing to his Soveraigns interest and so of all other Ministers of the Soveraignty publique and private All which Instructions of naturall Reason may be comprehended under one name of Fidelity which is a branch of naturall Justice The Law of Nature excepted it belongeth to the essence of all other Lawes to be made known to every man that shall be obliged to obey them either by word or writing or some other act known to proceed from the Soveraign Authority For the will of another cannot be understood but by his own word or act or by conjecture taken from his scope and purpose which in the person of the Common-wealth is to be supposed alwaies consonant to Equity and Reason And in antient time before letters were in common use the Lawes were many times put into verse that the rude people taking pleasure in singing or reciting them might the more easily reteine them in memory And for the same reason Solomon adviseth a man to bind the ten Commandements upon his ten fingers And for the Law which Moses gave to the people of Israel at the renewing of the Covenant * he biddeth them to teach it their Children by discoursing of it both at home and upon the way at going to bed and at rising from bed and to write it upon the posts and dores of their houses and to assemble the people man woman and child to heare it read Nor is it enough the Law be written and published but also that there be manifest signs that it proceedeth from the will of the Soveraign For private men when they have or think they have force enough to secure their unjust designes and convoy them safely to their ambitious ends may publish for Lawes what they please without or against the Legislative Authority There is therefore requisite not only a Declaration of the Law but also sufficient signes of the Author and Authority The Author or Legislator is supposed in every Common-wealth to be evident because he is the Soveraign who having been Constituted by the consent of every one is supposed by every one to be sufficiently known And though the ignorance and security of men be such for the most part as that when the memory of the first Constitution of their Common-wealth is worn out they doe not consider by whose power they use to be defended against their enemies and to have their industry protected and to be righted when injury is done them yet because no man that considers can make question of it no excuse can be derived from the ignorance of where the Soveraignty is placed And it is a Dictate of Naturall Reason and consequently an evident Law of Nature that no man ought to weaken that power the protection whereof he hath himself demanded or wittingly received against others Therefore of who is Soveraign no man but by his own fault whatsoever evill men suggest can make any doubt The difficulty consisteth in the evidence of the Authority derived from him The removing whereof dependeth on the knowledge of the publique Registers publique Counsels publique Ministers and publique Seales by which all Lawes are sufficiently verified Verifyed I say not Authorised for the Verification is but the Testimony and Record not the Authority of the Law which consisteth in the Command of the Soveraign only If therefore a man have a question of Injury depending on the Law of Nature that is to say on common Equity the Sentence of the Judge that by Commission hath Authority to take cogninisance of such causes is a sufficient Verification of the Law of Nature in that individuall case For though the advice of one that professeth the study of the Law be usefull for the avoyding of contention yet it is but advice t is the Judge must tell men what is Law upon the hearing of the Controversy But when the question is of injury or crime upon a written Law every man by recourse to the Registers by himself or others may if he will be sufficiently enformed before he doe such injury or commit the crime whither it be an injury or not Nay he ought to doe so For when a man doubts whether the act he goeth about be just or injust and may informe himself if he will the doing is unlawfull In like manner he that supposeth himself injured in a case determined by the written Law which he may by himself or others see and consider if he complaine before he consults with the Law he does unjustly and bewrayeth a disposition rather to vex other men than to demand his own right If the question be of Obedience to a publique Officer To have seen his Commission with the Publique Seale and heard it read or to have had the means to be informed of it if a man would is a sufficient Verification of his Authority For every man is obliged to doe his best endeavour to informe himself of
all written Lawes that may concerne his own future actions The Legislator known and the Lawes either by writing or by the light of Nature sufficiently published there wanteth yet another very materiall circumstance to make them obligatory For it is not the Letter but the Intendment or Meaning that is to say the authentique Interpretation of the Law which is the sense of the Legislator in which the nature of the Law consisteth And therefore the Interpretation of all Lawes dependeth on the Authority Soveraign and the Interpreters can be none but those which the Soveraign to whom only the Subject oweth obedience shall appoint For else by the craft of an Interpreter the Law may be made to beare a sense contrary to that of the Soveraign by which means the Interpreter becomes the Legislator All Laws written and unwritten have need of Interpretation The unwritten Law of Nature though it be easy to such as without partiality and passion make use of their naturall reason and therefore leaves the violaters thereof without excuse yet considering there be very few perhaps none that in some cases are not blinded by self love or some other passion it is now become of all Laws the most obscure and has consequently the greatest need of able Interpreters The written Laws if they be short are easily mis-interpreted from the divers significations of a word or two if long they be more obscure by the diverse significations of many words in so much as no written Law delivered in few or many words can be well understood without a perfect understanding of the finall causes for which the Law was made the knowledge of which finall causes is in the Legislator To him therefore there can not be any knot in the Law insoluble either by finding out the ends to undoe it by or else by making what ends he will as Alexander did with his sword in the Gordian knot by the Legislative power which no other Interpreter can doe The Interpretation of the Lawes of Nature in a Common-wealth dependeth not on the books of Morall Philosophy The Authority of writers without the Authority of the Common-wealth maketh not their opinions Law be they never so true That which I have written in this Treatise concerning the Morall Vertues and of their necessity for the procuring and maintaining peace though it bee evident Truth is not therefore presently Law but because in all Common-wealths in the world it is part of the Civill Law For though it be naturally reasonable yet it is by the Soveraigne Power that it is Law Otherwise it were a great errour to call the Lawes of Nature unwritten Law whereof wee see so many volumes published and in them so many contradictions of one another and of themselves The Interpretation of the Law of Nature is the Sentence of the Judge constituted by the Soveraign Authority to heare and determine such controversies as depend thereon and consisteth in the application of the Law to the present case For in the act of Judicature the Judge doth no more but consider whither the demand of the party be consonant to naturall reason and Equity and the Sentence he giveth is therefore the Interpretation of the Law of Nature which Interpretation is Authentique not because it is his private Sentence but because he giveth it by Authority of the Soveraign whereby it becomes the Soveraigns Sentence which is Law for that time to the parties pleading But because there is no Judge Subordinate nor Soveraign but may erre in a Judgement of Equity if afterward in another like case he find it more consonant to Equity to give a contrary Sentence he is obliged to doe it No mans error becomes his own Law nor obliges him to persist in it Neither for the same reason becomes it a Law to other Judges though sworn to follow it For though a wrong Sentence given by authority of the Soveraign if he know and allow it in such Lawes as are mutable be a constitution of a new Law in cases in which every little circumstance is the same yet in Lawes immutable such as are the Lawes of Nature they are no Lawes to the same or other Judges in the like cases for ever after Princes succeed one another and one Iudge passeth another commeth nay Heaven and Earth shall passe but not one title of the Law of Nature shall passe for it is the Eternall Law of God Therefore all the Sentences of precedent Judges that have ever been cannot all together make a Law contrary to naturall Equity Nor any Examples of former Judges can warrant an unreasonable Sentence or discharge the present Judge of the trouble of studying what is Equity in the case he is to Judge from the principles of his own naturall reason For example sake 'T is against the Law of Nature To punish the Innocent and Innocent is he that acquitteth himselfe Judicially and is acknowledged for Innocent by the Judge Put the case now that a man is accused of a capitall crime and seeing the power and malice of some enemy and the frequent corruption and parââ¦iality of Judges runneth away for feare of the event and afterwards is taken and brought to a legall triall and maketh it sufficiently appear he was not guilty of the crime and being thereof acquitted is neverthelesse condemned to lose his goods this is a manifest condemnation of the Innocent I say therefore that there is no place in the world where this can be an interpretation of a Law of Nature or be made a Law by the Sentences of precedent Judges that had done the same For he that judged it first judged unjustly and no Injustice can be a pattern of Judgement to succeeding Judges A written Law may forbid innocent men to fly and they may be punished for flying But that flying for feare of injury should be taken for presumption of guilt after a man is already absolved of the crime Judicially is contrary to the nature of a Presumption which hath no place after Judgement given Yet this is set down by a great Lawyer for the common Law of England If a man saith he that is Innocent be accused of Felony and for feare flyeth for the same albeit he judicially acquitteth himselfe of the Felony yet if it be found that he fled for the Felony he shall notwithstanding his Innocency Forfeit all his goods chattells debts and duties For as to the Forfeiture of them the Law will admit no proofe against the Presumption in Law grounded upon his flight Here you see An Innocent man Judicially acquitted notwithstanding his Innocency when no written Law forbad him to fly after his acquitall upon a Presumption in Law condemned to lose all the goods he hath If the Law ground upon his flight a Presumption of the fact which was Capitall the Sentence ought to have been Capitall if the Presumption were not of ââ¦he Fact for what then ought he to lose his goods This therefore is
no Law of England nor is the condemnation grounded upon a Presumption of Law but upon the Presumption of the Judges It is also against Law to say that no Proofe shall be admitted against a Presumption of Law For all Judges Soveraign and subordinate if they refuse to heare Proofe refuse to do Justice for though the Sentence be Just yet the Judges that condemn without hearing the Proofes offered are Unjust Judges and their Presumption is but Prejudice which no man ought to bring with him to the Seat of Justice whatsoever precedent judgements or examples he shall pretend to follow There be other things of this nature wherein mens Judgements have been perverted by trusting to Precedents but this is enough to shew that though the Sentence of the Judge be a Law to the party pleading yet it is no Law to any Judge that shall succeed him in that Office In like manner when question is of the Meaning of written Lawes he is not the Interpreter of them that writeth a Commentary upon them For Commentaries are commonly more subject to cavill than the Text and therefore need other Commentaries and so there will be no end of such Interpretation And therefore unlesse there be an Interpreter authorised by the Soveraign from which the subordinate Judges are not to recede the Interpreter can be no other than the ordinary Judges in the same manner as they are in cases of the unwritten Law and their Sentences are to be taken by them that plead for Lawes in that particular case but not to bind other Judges in like cases to give like judgements For a Judge may erre in the Interpretation even of written Lawes but no errour of a subordinate Judge can change the Law which is the generall Sentence of the Soveraigne In written Lawes men use to make a difference between the Letter and the Sentence of the Law And when by the Letter is meant whatsoever can be gathered from the bare words 't is well distinguished For the significations of almost all words are either in themselves or in the metaphoricall use of them ambiguous and may be drawn in argument to make many senses but there is onely one sense of the Law But if by the Letter be meant the literall sense then the Letter and the Sentence or intention of the Law is all one For the literall sense is that which the Legislator intended should by the letter of the Law be signified Now the Intention of the Legislator is alwayes supposed to be Equity For it were a great contumely for a Judge to think otherwise of the Soveraigne He ought therefore if the Word of the Law doe not fully authorise a reasonable Sentence to supply it with the Law of Nature or if the case be difficult to respit Judgement till he have received more ample authority For Example a written Law ordaineth that he which is thrust out of his house by force shall be restored by force It happens that a man by negligence leaves his house empty and returning is kept out by force in which case there is no speciall Law ordained It is evident that this case is contained in the same Law for else there is no remedy for him at all which is to be supposed against the Intention of the Legislator Again the word of the Law commandeth to Judge according to the Evidence A man is accused falsly of a fact which the Judge saw himself done by another and not by him that is accused In this case neither shall the Letter of the Law be followed to the condemnation of the Innocent nor shall the Judge give Sentence against the evidence of the Witnesses because the Letter of the Law is to the contrary but procure of the Soveraign that another be made Judge and himself Witnesse So that the incommodity that follows the bare words of a written Law may lead him to the Intention of the Law whereby to interpret the same the better though no Incommodity can warrant a Sentence against the Law For every Judge of Right and Wrong is not Judge of what is ââ¦ommodious or Incommodious to the Common-wealth The abilities required in a good Interpreter of the Law that is to say in a good Judge are not the same with those of an Advocate namely the study of the Lawes For a Judge as he ought to take notice of the Fact from none but the Witnesses so also he ought to take notice of the Law from nothing but the Satutes and Constitutions of the Soveraign alledged in the pleading or declared to him by some that have authority from the Soveraign Power to declare them and need not take care before-hand what hee shall Judge for it shall bee given him what hee shall say concerning the Fact by Witnesses and what hee shall say in point of Law from those that shall in their pleadings ââ¦hew it and by authority interpret it upon the place The Lords of Parlament in England were Judges and most difficult causes have been heard and determined by them yet few of them were much versed in the study of the Lawes and fewer had made profession of them and though they consulted with Lawyers that were appointed to be present there for that purpose yet they alone had the authority of giving Sentence In like manner in the ordinary trialls of Right Twelve men of the common People are the Judges and give Sentence not onely of the Fact but of the Right and pronounce simply for the Complaynant or for the Defendant that is to say are Judges not onely of the Fact but also of the Right and in a question of crime not onely determine whether done or not done but also whether it be Murder Homicide Felony Assault and the like which are determinations of Law but because they are not supposed to know the Law of themselves there is one that hath Authority to enforme them of it in the particular case they are to Judge of But yet if they judge not according to that he tells them they are not subject thereby to any penalty unlesse it be made appear they did it against their consciences or had been corrupted by reward The things that make a good Judge or good Interpreter of the Lawes are first A right understanding of that principall Law of Nature called Equity which depending not on the reading of other mens Writings but on the goodnesse of a mans own naturall Reason and Meditation is presumed to be in those most that have had most leisure and had the most inclination to meditate thereon Secondly Contempt of unnecessary Riches and Preferments Thirdly To be able in judgement to devest himselfe of all feare anger hatred love and compassion Fourthly and lastly Patience to heare diligent attention in hearing and memory to retain digest and apply what he hath heard The difference and division of the Lawes has been made in divers manners according to the different methods of those men that have written of
them For it is a thing that dependeth not on Nature but on the scope of the Writer and is subservient to every mans proper method In the Institutions of Justinian we find seven sorts of Civill Lawes 1. The Edicts Constitutions and Epistles of the Prince that is of the Emperour because the whole power of the people was in him Like these are the Proclamations of the Kings of England 2. The Decrees of the whole people of Rome comprehending the Senate when they were put to the Question by the Senate These were Lawes at first by the vertue of the Soveraign Power residing in the people and such of them as by the Emperours were not abrogated remained Lawes by the Authority Imperiall For all Lawes that bind are understood to be Lawes by his authority that has power to repeale them Somewhat like to these Lawes are the Acts of Parliament in England 3. The Decrees of the Common people excluding the Senate when they were put to the question by the Tribune of the people For such of them as were not abrogated by the Emperours remained Lawes by the Authority Imperiall Like to these were the Orders of the House of Commons in England 4. Senatûs consulta the Orders of the Senate because when the people of Rome grew so numerous as it was inconvenient to assemble them it was thought fit by the Emperour that men should Consult the Senate in stead of the people And these have some resemblance with the Acts of Counsell 5. The Edicts of Praetors and in some Cases of the Aediles such as are the Chiefe Justices in the Courts of England 6. Responsa Prudentum which were the Sentences and Opinions of those Lawyers to whom the Emperour gave Authority to interpret the Law and to give answer to such as in matter of Law demanded their advice which Answers the Judges in giving Judgement were obliged by the Constitutions of the Emperour to observe And should be like the Reports of Cases Judged if other Judges be by the Law of England bound to observe them For the Judges of the Common Law of England are not properly Judges but Juris Consulti of whom the Judges who are either the Lords or Twelve men of the Country are in point of Law to ask advice 7. Also Unwritten Customes which in their own nature are an imitation of Law by the tacite consent of the Emperour in case they be not contrary to the Law of Nature are very Lawes Another division of Lawes is into Naturall and Positive Naturââ¦ll are those which have been Lawes from all Eternity and are called not onely Naturall but also Morall Lawes consisting in the Morall Vertues as Justice Equity and all habits of the mind that conduce to Peace and Charity of which I have already spoken in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters Positive are those which have not been from Eternity but have been made Lawes by the Will of those that have had the Soveraign Power over others and are either written or made known to men by some other argument of the Will of their Legislator Again of Positive Lawes some are Humane some Divine And of Humane positive lawes some are Distributive some Penal Distributive are those that determine the Rights of the Subjects declaring to every man what it is by which he acquireth and holdeth a propriety in lands or goods and a right or liberty of action and these speak to all the Subjects Penal are those which declare what Penalty shall be inflicted on those that violate the Law and speak to the Ministers and Officers ordained for execution For though every one ought to be informed of the Punishments ordained before-hand for their transgression neverthelesse the Command is not addressed to the Delinquent who cannot be supposed will faithfully punish himselfe but to publique Ministers appointed to see the Penalty executed And these Penal Lawes are for the most part written together with the Lawes Distributive and are sometimes called Judgements For all Lawes are generall Judgements or Sentences of the Legislator as also every particular Judgement is a Law to him whose case is Judged Divine Positive Lawes for Naturall Lawes being Eternall and Universall are all Divine are those which being the Commandements of God not from all Eternity nor universally addressed to all men but onely to a certain people or to certain persons are declared for such by those whom God hath authorised to declare them But this Authority of man to declare what be these Positive Lawes of God how can it be known God may command a man by a supernaturall way to deliver Lawes to other men But because it is of the essence of Law that he who is to be obliged be assured of the Authority of him that declareth it which we cannot naturally take notice to be from God How can a man without supernaturall Revelation be assured of the Revelation received by the declarer and how can he be bound to obey them For the first question how a man can be assured of the Revelation of another without a Revelation particularly to himselfe it is evidently impossible For though a man may be induced to believe such Revelation from the Miracles they see him doe or from seeing the Extraordinary sanctity of his life or from seeing the Extraordinary wisedome or Extraordinary felicity of his Actions all which are marks of God extraordinary favour yet they are not assured evidences of speciall Revelation Miracles are Marvellous workes but that which is marvellous to one may not be so to another Sanctity may be feigned and the visible felicities of this world are most often the work of God by Naturall and ordinary causes And therefore no man can infallibly know by naturall reason that another has had a supernaturall revelation of Gods will but only a beliefe every one as the signs thereof shall appear greater or lesser a firmer or a weaker belief But for the second how he can be bound to obey them it is not so hard For if the Law declared be not against the Law of Nature which is undoubtedly Gods Law and he undertake to obey it he is bound by his own act bound I say to obey it but not bound to believe it for mens beliefe and interiour cogitations are not subject to the commands but only to the operation of God ordinary or extraordinary Faith of Supernaturall Law is not a fulfilling but only an assenting to the same and not a duty that we exhibite to God but a gift which God freely giveth to whom he pleaseth as also Unbelief is not a breach of any of his Lawes but a rejection of them all except the Laws Naturall But this that I say will be made yet cleerer by the Examples and Testimonies concerning this point in holy Scripture The Covenant God made with Abraham in a Supernaturall manner was thus This is the Covenant which thou shalt observe between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee Abrahams Seed had
disturbance of the Peace of the Common-wealth Secondly by falsé Teachers that either mis-interpret the Law of Nature making it thereby repugnant to the Law Civill or by teaching for Lawes such Doctrines of their own or Traditions of former times as are inconsistent with the duty of a Subject Thirdly by Erroneous Inferences from True Principles which happens commonly to men that are hasty and praecipitate in concluding and resolving what to do such as are they that have both a great opinion of their own understanding and believe that things of this nature require not time and study but onely common experience and a good naturall wit whereof no man thinks himselfe unprovided whereas the knowledge of Right and Wrong which is no lesse difficult there is no man will pretend to without great and long study And of those defects in Reasoning there is none that can Excuse though some of them may Extenuate a Crime in any man that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge because they pretend to the Reason upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime one is Vain-glory or a foolish over-rating of their own worth as if difference of worth were an effect of their wit or riches or bloud or some other naturall quality not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority From whence proceedeth a Presumption that the punishments ordained by the Lawes and extended generally to all Subjects ought not to be inflicted on them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poore obscure and simple men comprehended under the name of the Vulgar Therefore it happeneth commonly that such as value themselves by the greatnesse of their wealth adventure on Crimes upon hope of escaping punishment by corrupting publique Justice or obtaining Pardon by Mony or other rewards And that such as have multitude of Potent Kindred and popular men that have gained reputation amongst the Multitude take courage to violate the Lawes from a hope of oppressing the Power to whom it belongeth to put them in execution And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own Wisedome take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the Authority of them that govern and so to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse as that nothing shall be a Crime but what their own designes require should be so It happeneth also to the same men to be prone to all such Crimes as consist in Craft and in deceiving of their Neighbours because they think their designes are too subtile to be perceived These I say are effects of a false presumption of their own Wisdome For of them that are the first movers in the disturbance of Common-wealth which can never happen without a Civill Warre very few are left alive long enough to see their new Designes established so that the benefit of their Crimes redoundeth to Posterity and such as would least have wished it which argues they were not so wise as they thought they were And those that deceive upon hope of not being observed do commonly deceive themselves the darknesse in which they believe they lye hidden being nothing else but their own blindnesse and are no wiser than Children that think all hid by hiding their own eyes And generally all vain-glorious men unlesse they be withall timorous are subject to Anger as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt the ordinary liberty of conversation And there are few Crimes that may not be produced by Anger As for the Passions of Hate Lust Ambition and Covetousnesse what Crimes they are apt to produce is so obvious to every mans experience and understanding as there needeth nothing to be said of them saving that they are infirmities so annexed to the nature both of man and all other living creatures as that their effects cannot be hindred but by extraordinary use of Reason or a constant severity in punishing them For in those things men hate they find a continuall and unavoydable molestation whereby either a mans patience must be everlasting or he must be eased by removing the power of that which molesteth him The former is difficult the later is many times impossible without some violation of the Law Ambition and Covetousnesse are Passions also that are perpetually incumbent and pressing whereas Reason is not perpetually present to resist them and therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears their effects proceed And for Lust what it wants in the lasting it hath in the vehemence which sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easie or uncertain punishments Of all Passions that which enclineth men least to break the Lawes is Fear Nay excepting some generous natures it is the onely thing when there is apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the Lawes that makes men keep them And yet in many cases a Crime may be committed through Feare For not every Fear justifies the Action it produceth but the fear onely of corporeall hurt which we call Bodily Fear and from which a man cannot see how to be delivered but by the action A man is assaulted fears present death from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him If he wound him to death this is no Crime because no man is supposed at the making of a Common-wealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbes where the Law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance But to kill a man because from his actions or his threatnings I may argue he will kill me when he can seeing I have time and means to demand protection from the Soveraign Power is a Crime Again a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries for which they that made the Lawes had assigned no punishment nor thought it worthy of a man that hath the use of Reason to take notice of and is afraid unlesse he revenge it he shall fall into contempt and consequently be obnoxious to the like injuries from others and to avoyd this breaks the Law and protects himselfe for the future by the terrour of his private revenge This is a Crime For the hurt is not Corporeall but Phantasticall and though in this corner of the world made sensible by a custome not many years since begun amongst young and vain men so light as a gallant man and one that is assured of his own courage cannot take notice of Also a man may stand in fear of Spirits either through his own superstition or through too much credit given to other men that tell him of strange Dreams and Visions and thereby be made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things which neverthelesse to do or omit is contrary to the Lawes And that which is so done or omitted is not to be Excused by this fear but is
a Crime For as I have shewn before in the second Chapter Dreams be naturally but the fancies remaining in sleep after the impressions our Senses had formerly received waking and when men are by any accident unassured they have slept seem to be reall Visions and therefore he that presumes to break the Law upon his own or anothers Dream or pretended Vision or upon other Fancy of the power of Invisible Spirits than is permitted by the Common-wealth leaveth the Law of Nature which is a certain offence and followeth the imagery of his own or another private mans brain which he can never know whether it signifieth any thing or nothing nor whether he that tells his Dream say true or lye which if every private man should have leave to do as they must by the Law of Nature if any one have it there could no Law be made to hold and so all Common-wealth would be dissolved From these different sources of Crimes it appeares already that all Crimes are not as the Stoicks of old time maintained of the same allay There is place not only for EXCUSE by which that which seemed a Crime is proved to be none at all but also for EXTENUATION by which the Crime that seemed great is made lesse For though all Crimes doe equally deserve the name of Injustice as all deviation from a strait line is equally crookednesse which the Stoicks rightly observed yet it does not follow that all Crimes are equally unjust no more than that all crooked lines are equally crooked which the Stoicks not observing held it as great a Crime to kill a Hen against the Law as to kill ones Father That which totally Excuseth a Fact and takes away from it the nature of a Crime can be none but that which at the same time taketh away the obligation of the Law For the fact committed once against the Law if he that committed it be obliged to the Law can be no other than a Crime The want of means to know the Law totally Excuseth For the Law whereof a man has no means to enforme himself is not obligatory But the want of diligence to enquire shall not be considered as a want of means Nor shall any man that pretendeth to reason enough for the Government of his own affairs be supposed to want means to know the Lawes of Nature because they are known by the reason he pretends to only Children and Madmen are Excused from offences against the Law Naturall Where a man is captive or in the power of the enemy and he is then in the power of the enemy when his person or his means of living is so if it be without his own fault the Obligation of the Law ceaseth because he must obey the enemy or dye and consequently such obedience is no Crime for no man is obliged when the protection of the Law faileth not to protect himself by the best means he can If a man by the terrour of present death be compelled to doe a fact against the Law he is totally Excused because no Law can oblige a man to abandon his own preservation And supposing such a Law were obligatory yet a man would reason thus If I doe it not I die presently if I doe it I die afterwards therefore by doing it there is time of life gained Nature therefore compells him to the fact When a man is destitute of food or other thing necessary for his life and cannot preserve himselfe any other way but by some fact against the Law as if in a great famine he take the food by force or stealth which he cannot obtaine for mony nor charity or in defence of his life snatch away another mans Sword he is totally Excused for the reason next before alledged Again Facts done against the Law by the authority of another are by that authority Excused against the Author because no man ought to accuse his own fact in another that is but his instrument but it is not Excused against a third person thereby injured because in the violation of the Law both the Author and Actor are Criminalls From hence it followeth that when that Man or Assembly that hath the Soveraign Power commandeth a man to do that which is contrary to a former Law the doing of it is totally Excused For he ought not to condemn it himselfe because he is the Author and what cannot justly be condemned by the Soveraign cannot justly be punished by any other Besides when the Soveraign commandeth any thing to be done against his own former Law the Command as to that particular fact is an abrogation of the Law If that Man or Assembly that hath the Soveraign Power disclaime any Right essentiall to the Soveraignty whereby there accââ¦eth to the Subject any liberty inconsistent with the Soveraign Power that is to say with the very being of a Common-wealth if the Subject shall refuse to obey the Command in any thing contrary to the liberty granted this is neverthelesse a Sinne and contrary to the duty of the Subject for he ought to take notice of what is inconsistent with the Soveraignty because it was erected by his own consent and for his own defence and that such liberty as is inconsistent with it was granted through ignorance of the evill consequence thereof But if he not onely disobey but also resist a publique Minister in the execution of it then it is a Crime because he might have been righted without any breach of the Peace upon complaint The Degrees of Crime are taken on divers Scales and measured First by the malignity of the Source or Cause Secondly by the contagion of the Example Thirdly by the mischiefe of the Effect and Fourthly by the concurrence of Times Places and Persons The same Fact done against the Law if it proceed from Presumption of strength riches or friends to resist those that are to execute the Law is a greater Crime than if it proceed from hope of not being discovered or of escape by flight For Presumption of impunity by force is a Root from whence springeth at all times and upon all temptations a contempt of all Lawes whereas in the later case the apprehension of danger that makes a man fly renders him more obedient for the future A Crime which we know to be so is greater than the same Crime proceeding from a false perswasion that it is lawfull For he that committeth it against his own conscience presumeth on his force or other power which encourages him to commit the same again but he that doth it by errour after the errour shewn him is conformable to the Law Hee whose errour proceeds from the authority of a Teacher or an Interpreter of the Law publiquely authorised is not so faulty as he whose errour proceedeth from a peremptory pursute of his own principles and reasoning For what is taught by one that teacheth by publique Authority the Common-wealth ââ¦eacheth and hath a resemblance of Law till
Terrour of death or wounds than by clandestine surreption And by clandestine Surreption than by consent fraudulently obtained And the violation of chastity by Force greater than by flattery And of a woman Married than of a woman not married For all these things are commonly so valued though some men are more and some lesse sensible of the same offence But the Law regardeth not the particular but the generall inclination of mankind And therefore the offence men take from contumely in words or gesture when they produce no other harme than the present griefe of him that is reproached hath been neglected in the Lawes of the Greeks Romans and other both antient and moderne Common-wealths supposing the true cause of such griefe to consist not in the contumely which takes no hold upon men conscious of their own vertue but in the Pusillanimity of him that is offended by it Also a Crime against a private man is much aggravated by the person time and place For to kill ones Parent is a greater Crime than to kill another for the Parent ought to have the honour of a Soveraign though he have surrendred his Power to the Civill Law because he had it originally by Nature And to Robbe a poore man is a greater Crime than to robbe a rich man because 't is to the poore a more sensible dammage And a Crime committed in the Time or Place appointed for Devotion is greater than if committed at another time or place for it proceeds from a greater contempt of the Law Many other caseâ⦠of Aggravation and Extenuation might be added but by these I have set down it is obvious to every man to take the altitude of any other Crime proposed Lastly because in almost all Crimes there is an Injury done not onely to some Private men but also to the Common-wealth the same Crime when the accusation is in the name of the Common-wealth is called Publique Crime and when in the name of a Private man a Private Crime And the Pleas according thereunto called Publique Judicia Publica Pleas of the Crown or Private Pleas. As in an Accusation of Murder if the accuser be a Private man the plea is a Private plea if the accuser be the Soveraign the plea is a Publique plea. CHAP. XXVIII Of PUNISHMENTS and REWARDS APUNISHMENT is an Evill inflicted by publique Authority on him that hath done or omitted that which is Judged by the same Authority to be a Transgression of the Law to the end that the will of men may thereby the better be disposed to obedience Before I inferre any thing from this definition there is a question to be answered of much importance which is by what door the Right or Authority of Punishing in any case came in For by that which has been said before no man is supposed bound by Covenant not to resist violence and consequently it cannot be intended that he gave any right to another to lay violent hands upon his person In the making of a Common-wealth every man giveth away the right of defending another but not of defending himselfe Also he obligeth himselfe to assist him that hath the Soveraignty in the Punishing of another but of himselfe not But to covenant to assist the Soveraign in doing hurt to another unlesse he that so covenanteth have a right to doe it himselfe is not to give him a Right to Punish It is manifest therefore that the Right which the Common-wealth that is he or they that represent it hath to Punish is not grounded on any concession or gift of the Subjects But I have also shewed formerly that before the Institution of Common-wealth every man had a right to every thing and to do whatsoever he thought necessary to his own preservation subduing hurting or killing any man in order thereunto And this is the foundation of that right of Punishing which is exercised in every Common-wealth For the Subjects did not give the Soveraign that right but onely in laying down theirs strengthned him to use his own as he should think fit for the preservation of them all so that it was not given but left to him and to him onely and excepting the limits set him by naturall Law as entire as in the condition of meer Nature and of warre of every one against his neighbour ââ¦rom the definition of Punishment I inferre First that neither private revenges nor injuries of private men can properly be stiled Punishment because they proceed not from publique Authority Secondly that to be neglected and unpreferred by the publique favour is not a Punishment because no new evill is thereby on any man Inflicted he is onely left in the estate he was in before Thirdly that the evill inflicted by publique Authority without precedent publique condemnation is not to be stiled by the name of Punishment but of an hostile act because the fact for which a man is Punished ought first to be Judged by publique Authority to be a transgression of the Law Fourthly that the evill inflicted by usurped power and Judges without Authority from the Soveraign is not Punishment but an act of hostility because the acts of power usurped have not for Author the person condemned and therefore are not acts of publique Authority Fifthly that all evill which is inflicted without intention or possibility of disposing the Delinquent or by his example other men to obey the Lawes is not Punishment but an act of hostility because without such an end no hurt done is contained under that name Sixthly whereas to certain actions there be annexed by Nature divers hurtfull consequences as when a man in assaulting another is himselfe slain or wounded or when he falleth into sicknesse by the doing of some unlawfull act such hurt though in respect of God who is the author of Nature it may be said to be inflicted and therefore a Punishment divine yet it is not contaned in the name of Punishment in respect of men because it is not inflicted by the Authority of man Seventhly If the harm inflicted be lesse than the benefit or contentment that naturally followeth the crime committed that harm is not within the definition and is rather the Price or Redemption than the Punishment of a Crime Because it is of the nature of Punishment to have for end the disposing of men to obey the Law which end if it be lesse than the benefit of the transgression it attaineth not but worketh a contrary effect Eighthly If a Punishment bè determined and prescribed in the Law it selfe and after the crime committed there be a greater Punishment inflicted the excesse is not Punishment but an act of hostility For seeing the aym of Punishment is not a revenge but terrour and the terrour of a great Punishment unknown is taken away by the declaration of a lesse the unexpected addition is no part of the Punishment But where there is no Punishment at all determined by the
Law there whatsoever is inflicted hath the nature of Punishment For he that goes about the violation of a Law wherein no penalty is determined expecteth an indeterminate that is to say an arbitrary Punishment Ninthly Harme inflicted for a Fact done before there was a Law that forbad it is not Punishment but an act of Hostility For before the Law there is no transgression of the Law But Punishment supposeth a fact judged to have been a transgression of the Law Therefore Harme inflicted before the Law made is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Tenthly Hurt inflicted on the Representative of the Common-wealth is not Punishment but an act of Hostility Because it is of the nature of Punishment to be inflicted by publique Authority which is the Authority only of the Representative it self Lastly Harme inflicted upon one that is a declared enemy fals not under the name of Punishment Because seeing they were either never subject to the Law and therefore cannot transgresse it or having been subject to it and professing to be no longer so by consequence deny they can transgresse it all the Harmes that can be done them must be taken as acts of Hostility But in declared Hostility all infliction of evill is lawfull From whence it followeth that if a subject shall by fact or word wittingly and deliberatly deny the authority of the Representative of the Common-wealth whatsoever penalty hath been formerly ordained for Treason he may lawfully be made to suffer whatsoever the Representative will For in denying subjection he denyes such Punishment as by the Law hath been ordained and therefore suffers as an enemy of the Common-wealth that is according to the will of the Representative For the Punishments set down in the Law are to Subjects not to Enemies such as are they that having been by their own act Subjects deliberately revolting deny the Soveraign Power The first and most generall distribution of Punishments is into Divine and Humane Of the former I shall have occasion to speak in a more convenient place hereafter Humane are those Punishments that be inflicted by the Commandement of Man and are either Corporall or Pecuââ¦ary or Ignominy or Imprisonment or Exile or mixt of these Corporall Punishment is that which is inflicted on the body directly and according to the intention of him that inflicteth it such as are stripes or wounds or deprivation of such pleasures of the body as were before lawfully enjoyed And of these some be Capitall some Lesse than Capitall Capitall is the Infliction of Death and that either simply or with torment Lesse than Capitall are Stripes Wounds Chains and any other corporall Paine not in its own nature mortall For if upon the Infliction of a Punishment death ââ¦ollow not in the intention of the Inflicter the Punishment is not to bee esteemed Capitall though the harme prove mortall by an accident not to be foreseen in which case death is not inflicted but hastened Pecuniary Punishment is that which consisteth not only in the deprivation of a Summe of Mony but also of Lands or any other goods which are usually bought and sold for mony And in case the Law that ordaineth such a punishment be made with design to gather mony from such as shall transgresse the same it is not properly a Punishment but the Price of priviledge and exemption from the Law which doth not absolutely forbid the fact but only to those that are not able to pay the mony except where the Law is Naturall or part of Religion for in that case it is not an exemption from the Law but a transgression of it As where a Law exacteth a Pecuniary mulct of them that take the name of God in vaine the payment of the mulct is not the price of a dispensation to sweare but the Punishment of the transgression of a Law undispensable In like manner if the Law impose a Summe of Mony to be payd to him that has been Injured this is but a satisfaction for the hurt done him and extinguisheth the accusation of the party injured not the crime of the offender Ignominy is the infliction of such Evill as is made Dishonorable or the deprivation of such Good as is made Honourable by the Common-wealth For there be some things Honorable by Nature as the effects of Courage Magnamity Strength Wisdome and other abilities of body and mind Others made Honorable by the Common-wealth as Badges Titles Offices or any other singular marke of the Soveraigns favour The former though they may faile by nature or accident cannot be taken away by a Law and therefore the losse of them is not Punishment But the later may be taken away by the publique authority that made them Honorable and are properly Punishments Such are degrading men condemned of their Badges Titles and Offices or declaring them uncapable of the like in time to come Imprisonment is when a man is by publique Authority deprived of liberty and may happen from two divers ends whereof one is the safe custody of a man accused the other is the inflicting of paine on a man condemned The former is not Punishment because no man is supposed to be Punisht before he be Judicially heard and declared guilty And therefore whatsoever hurt a man is made to suffer by bonds or restraint before his cause be heard over and above that which is necessary to assure his custody is against the Law of Nature But the later is Punishment because Evill and inflicted by publique Authority for somewhat that has by the same Authority been Judged a Transgression of the Law Under this word Imprisoment I comprehend all restraint of motion caused by an externall obstacle be it a House which is called by the general name of a Prison or an Iland as when men are said to be confined to it or a place where men are set to worke as in old time men have been condemned to Quarries and in these times to Gallies or be it a Chaine or any other such impediment Exile Banishment is when a man is for a crime condemned to depart out of the dominion of the Common-wealth or out of a certaine part thereof and during a prefixed time or for ever not to return into it and seemeth not in its own nature without other circumstances to be a Punishment but rather an escape or a publique commandement to avoid Punishment by flight And Cicero sayes there was never any such Punishment ordained in the City of Rome but cals it a refuge of men in danger For if a man banished be neverthelesse permitted to enjoy his Goods and the Revenue of his Lands the meer change of ayr is no Punishment nor does it tend to that benefit of the Common-wealth for which all Punishments are ordained that is to say to the forming of mens wils to the observation of the Law but many times to the dammage of the Common-wealth For a Banished man is a lawfull
enemy of the Common-wealth that banished him as being no more a Member of the same But if he be withall deprived of his Lands or Goods then the Punishment lyeth not in the Exile but is to be reckoned amongst Punishments Pecuniary All Punishments of Innocent subjects be they great or little are against the Law of Nature For Punishment is only for Transgression of the Law and therefore there can be no Punishment of the Innocent It is therefore a violation First of that Law of Nature which forbiddeth all men in their Revenges to look at any thing but some future good For there can arrive no good to the Common-wealth by Punishing the Innocent Secondly of that which forbiddeth Ingratitude For seeing all Soveraign Power is originally given by the consent of every one of the Subjects to the end they should as long as they are obedient be protected thereby the Punishment of the Innocent is a rendring of Evill for Good And thirdly of the Law that commandeth Equity that is to say an equall distribution of Justice which in Punishing the Innocent is not observed But the Infliction of what evill soever on an Innocent man that is not a Subject if it be for the benefit of the Common-wealth and without violation of any former Covenant is no breach of the Law of Nature For all men that are not Subjects are either Enemies or else they have ceased from being so by some precedent covenants But against Enemies whom the Common-wealth judgeth capable to do them hurt it is lawfull by the originall Right of Nature to make warre wherein the Sword Judgeth not nor doth the Victor make distinction of Nocent and Innocent as to the time past nor has other respect of mercy than as it conduceth to the good of his own People And upon this ground it is that also in Subjects who deliberatly deny the Authority of the Common-wealth established the vengeance is lawfully extended not onely to the Fathers but also to the third and fourth generation not yet in being and consequently innocent of the fact for which they are afflicted because the nature of this offence consisteth in the renouncing of subjection which is a relapse into the condition of warre commonly called Rebellion and they that so offend suffer not as Subjects but as Enemies For Rebellion is but warre renewed REWARD is either of Gift or by Contract When by Contract it is called Salary and Wages which is benefit due for service performed or promised When of Gift it is benefit proceeding from the grace of them that bestow it to encourage or enable men to do them service And therefore when the Soveraign of a Common wealth appointeth a Salary to any publique Office he that receiveth it is bound in Justice to performe his office otherwise he is bound onely in honour to acknowledgement and an endeavour of requitall For though men have no lawfull remedy when they be commanded to quit their private businesse to serve the publique without Reward or Salary yet they are not bound thereto by the Law of Nature nor by the Institution of the Common-wealth unlesse the service cannot otherwise be done because it is supposed the Soveraign may make use of all their means insomuch as the most common Souldier may demand the wages of his warrefare as a debt The benefit which a Soveraign bestoweth on a Subject for fear of some power and ability he hath to do hurt to the Common-wealth are not properly Rewards for they are not Salaryes because there is in this case no contract supposed every man being obliged already not to do the Common-wealth disservice nor are they Graces because they be extorted by fear which ought not to be incident to the Soveraign Power but are rather Sacrifices which the Soveraign considered in his naturall person and not in the person of the Common-wealth makes for the appeasing the discontent of him he thinks more potent than himselfe and encourage not to obedience but on the contrary to the continuance and increasing of further extortion And whereas some Salaries are certain and proceed from the publique Treasure and others uncertain and casuall proceeding from the execution of the Office for which the Salary is ordained the later is in some cases hurtfull to the Common-wealth as in the case of Judicature For where the benefit of the Judges and Ministers of a Court of Justice ariseth for the multitude of Causes that are brought to their cognisance there must needs follow two Inconveniences One is the nourishing of sutes for the more sutes the greater benefit and another that depends on that which is contention about Jurisdiction each Court drawing to it selfe as many Causes as it can But in offices of Execution there are not those Inconveniences because their employment cannot be encreased by any endeavour of their own And thus much shall suffice for the nature of Punishment and Reward which are as it were the Nerves and Tendons that move the limbes and joynts of a Common-wealth Hitherto I have set forth the nature of Man whose Pride and other Passions have compelled him to submit himselfe to Government together with the great power of his Governour whom I compared to Leviathan taking that comparison out of the two last verses of the one and fortieth of Job where God having set forth the great power of Leviathan calleth him King of the Proud There is nothing saith he on earth to be compared with him He is made so as not to be afraid Hee seeth every high thing below him and is King of all the children of pride But because he is mortall and subject to decay as all other Earthly creatures are and because there is that in heaven though not on earth that he should stand in fear of and whose Lawes he ought to obey I shall in the next following Chapters speak of his Diseases and the causes of his Mortality and of what Lawes of Nature he is bound to obey CHAP. XXIX Of those things that Weaken or tend to the DISSOLUTION of a Common-wealth THough nothing can be immortall which mortals make yet if men had the use of reason they pretend to their Common-wealths might be secured at least from perishing by internall diseases For by the nature of their Institution they are designed to live as long as Man-kind or as the Lawes of Nature or as Justice it selfe which gives them life Therefore when they come to be dissolved not by externall violence but intestine disorder the fault is not in men as they are the Matter but as they are the Makers and orderers of them For men as they become at last weary of irregular justling and hewing one another and desire with all their hearts to conforme themselves into one firme and lasting edifice so for want both of the art of making fit Lawes to square their actions by and also of humility and patience to suffer the rude and combersome points of
their present greatnesse to be taken off they cannot without the help of a very able Architect be compiled into any other than a crasie building such as hardly lasting out their own time must assuredly fall upon the heads of their posterity Amongst the Infirmities therefore of a Common-wealth I will reckon in the first place those that arise from an Imperfect Institution and resemble the diseases of a naturall body which proceed from a Defectuous Procreation Of which this is one That a man to obtain a Kingdome is sometimes content with lesse Power than to the Peace and defence of the Common-wealth is necessarily required From whence it commeth to passe that when the exercise of the Power layd by is for the publique safety to be resumed it hath the resemblance of an unjust act which disposeth great numbers of men when occasion is presented to rebell In the same manner as the bodies of children gotten by diseased parents are subject either to untimely death or to purge the ill quality derived from their vicious conception by breaking out into biles and scabbs And when Kings deny themselves some such necessary Power it is not alwayes though sometimes out of ignorance of what is necessary to the office they undertake but many times out of a hope to recover the same again at their pleasure Wherein they reason not well because such as will hold them to their promises shall be maintained against them by forraign Common-wealths who in order to the good of their own Subjects let slip few occasions to weaken the estate of their Neighbours So was Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury supported against Henry the Second by the Pope the subjection of Ecclesiastiques to the Common-wealth having been dispensed with by William the Conquerour at his reception when he took an Oath not to infringe the liberty of the Church And so were the Barons whose power was by William Rufus to have their help in transferring the Succession from his Elder brother to himselfe encreased to a degree inconsistent with the Soveraign Power maintained in their Rebellion against King John by the French Nor does this happen in Monarchy onely For whereas the stile of the antient Roman Common-wealth was The Senate and People of Rome neither Senate nor People pretended to the whole Power which first caused the seditions of Tiberius Gracchus Caius Gracchus Lucius Saturninus and others and afterwards the warres between the Senate and the People under Marius and Sylla and again under Pompey and Caesar to the Extinction of their Democraty and the setting up of Monarchy The people of Athens bound themselves but from one onely Action which was that no man on pain of death should propound the renewing of the warre for the Island of Salamis And yet thereby if Solon had not caused to be given out he was mad and afterwards in gesture and habit of a mad-man and in verse propounded it to the People that flocked about him they had had an enemy perpetually in readinesse even at the gates of their Citie such dammage or shifts are all Common-wealths forced to that have their Power never so little limited In the second place I observe the Diseases of a Common-wealth that proceed from the poyson of seditious doctrines whereof one is That every private man is Judge of Good and Evill actions This is true in the condition of meer Nature where there are no Civill Lawes and also under Civill Government in such cases as are not determined by the Law But otherwise it is manifest that the measure of Good and Evill actions is the Civill Law and the Judge the Legislator who is alwayes Representative of the Common-wealth From this false doctrine men are disposed to debate with themselves and dispute the commands of the Common-wealth and afterwards to obey or disobey them as in their private judgements they shall think fit Whereby the Common-wealth is distracted and Weakened Another doctrine repugnant to Civill Society is that whatsoever a man does against his Conscience is Sinne and it dependeth on the presumption of making himself judge of Good and Evill For a mans Conscience and his Judgement is the same thing and as the Judgement so also the Conscience may be erroneous Therefore thought he that is subject to no Civill Law sinneth in all he does against his Conscience because he has no other rule to follow but his own reason yet it is not so with him that lives in a Common-wealth because the Law is the publique Conscience by which he hath already undertaken to be guided Otherwise in such diversity as there is of private Consciences which are but private opinions the Common-wealth must needs be distracted and no man dare to obey the Soveraign Power farther than it shall seem good in his own eyes It hath been also commonly taught That Faith and Sanctity are not to be attained by Study and Reason but by supernaturall Inspiration or Infusion which granted I see not why any man should render a reason of his Faith or why every Christian should not be also a Prophet or why any man should take the Law of his Country rather than his own Inspiration for the rule of his action And thus wee fall again into the fault of taking upon us to Judge of Good and Evill or to make Judges of it such private men as pretend to be supernaturally Inspired to the Dissolution of all Civill Government Faith comes by hearing and hearing by those accidents which guide us into the presence of them that speak to us which accidents are all contrived by God Almighty and yet are not supernaturall but onely for the great number of them that concurre to every effect unobservable Faith and Sanctity are indeed not very frequent but yet they are not Miracles but brought to passe by education discipline correction and other naturall wayes by which God worketh them in his elect at such time as he thinketh fit And these three opinions pernicious to Peace and Government have in this part of the world proceeded chiefly from the tongues and pens of unlearned Divines who joyning the words of Holy Scripture together otherwise than is agreeable to reason do what they can to make men think that Sanctity and Naturall Reason cannot stand togââ¦ther A fourth opinion repugnant to the nature of a Common-wealth is this That he that hath the Soveraign Power is subject to the Civill Lawes It is true that Soveraigns are all subject to the Lawes of Nature because such lawes be Divine and cannot by any man or Common-wealth be abrogated But to those Lawes which the Soveraign himselfe that is which the Common-wealth maketh he is not subject For to be subject to Lawes is to be subject to the Common-wealth that is to the Soveraign Representative that is to himselfe which is not subjection but freedome from the Lawes Which errour because it setteth the Lawes above the Soveraign setteth also a Judge above him and
the Fundamentall Lawes to the molestation of the Common-wealth like the little Wormes which Physicians call Ascarides We may further adde the insatiable appetite or Bulimia of enlarging Dominion with the incurable Wounds thereby many times received from the enemy And the Wens of ununited conquests which are many times a burthen and with lesse danger lost than kept As also the Lethargy of Ease and Consumption of Riot and Vain Expence Lastly when in a warre forraign or intestine the enemies get a finall Victory so as the forces of the Common-wealth keeping the field no longer there is no farther protection of Subjects in their loyaly then is the Common-wealth DISSOLVED and every man at liberty to protect himselfe by such courses as his own discretion shall suggest unto him For the Soveraign is the publique Soule giving Life and Motion to the Common-wealth which expiring the Members are governed by it no more than the Carcasse of a man by his departed though Immortall Soule For though the Right of a Soveraign Monarch cannot be extinguished by the act of another yet the Obligation of the members may For he that wants protection may seek it any where and when he hath it is obliged without fraudulent pretence of having submitted himselfe out of fear to protect his Protection as long as he is able But when the Power of an Assembly is once suppressed the Right of the same perisheth utterly because the Assembly it selfe is extinct and consequently there is no possibility for the Soveraignty to re-enter CHAP. XXX Of the OFFICE of the Soveraign Representative THe OFFICE of the Soveraign be it a Monarch or an Assembly consisteth in the end for which he was trusted with the Soveraign Power namely the procuration of the safety of the people to which he is obliged by the Law of Nature and to render an account thereof to God the Author of that Law and to none but him But by Safety here is not meant a bare Preservation but also all other Contentments of life which every man by lawfull Industry without danger or hurt to the Common-wealth shall acquire to himselfe And this is intended should be done not by care applyed to Individualls further than their protection from injuries when they shall complain but by a generall Providence contained in publique Instruction both of Doctrine and Example and in the making and executing of good Lawes to which individuall persons may apply their own cases And because if the essentiall Rights of Soveraignty specified before in the eighteenth Chapter be taken away the Common-wealth is thereby dissolved and every man returneth into the condition and calamity of a warre with every other man which is the greatest evill that can happen in this life it is the Office of the Soveraign to maintain those Rights entire and consequently against his duty First to transferre to another or to lay from himselfe any of them For he that deserteth the Means deserteth the Ends and he deserteth the Means that being the Soveraign acknowledgeth himselfe subject to the Civill Lawes and renounceth the Power of Supreme Judicature or of making Warre or Peace by his own Authority or of Judging of the Necessities of the Common-wealth or of levying Mony and Souldiers when and as much as in his own conscience he shall judge necessary or of making Officers and Ministers both of Warre and Peace or of appointing Teachers and examining what Doctrines are conformable or contrary to the Defence Peace and Good of the people Secondly it is against his Duty to let the people be ignorant or mis-informed of the grounds and reasons of those his essentiall Rights because thereby men are easie to be seduced and drawn to resist him when the Common-wealth shall require their use and exercise And the grounds of these Rights have the rather need to be diligently and truly taught because they cannot be maintained by any Civill Law or terrour of legall punishment For a Civill Law that shall forbid Rebellion and such is all resistance to the essentiall Rights of Soveraignty is not as a Civill Law any obligation but by vertue onely of the Law of Nature that forbiddeth the violation of Faith which naturall obligation if men know not they cannot know the Right of any Law the Soveraign maketh And for the Punishment they take it but for an act of Hostility which when they think they have strength enough they will endeavour by acts of Hostility to avoyd As I have heard some say that Justice is but a word without substance and that whatsoever a man can by force or art acquire to himselfe not onely in the condition of warre but also in a Common-wealth is his own which I have already shewed to be false So there be also that maintain that there are no grounds nor Principles of Reason to sustain those essentiall Rights which make Soveraignty absolute For if there were they would have been found out in some place or other whereas we see there has not hitherto been any Common-wealth where those Rights have been acknowledged or challenged Wherein they argue as ill as if the Savage people of America should deny there were any grounds or Principles of Reason so to build a house as to last as long as the materials because they never yet saw any so well built Time and Industry produce every day new knowledge And as the art of well building is derived from Principles of Reason observed by industrious men that had long studied the nature of materials and the divers effects of figure and proportion long after mankind began though poorly to build So long time after men have begun to constitute Common-wealths imperfect and apt to relapse into disorder there may Principles of Reason be found out by industrious meditation to make their constitution excepting by externall violence everlasting And such are those which I have in this discourse set forth Which whether they come not into the fight of those that have Power to make use of them or be neglected by them or not concerneth my particular interest at this day very little But supposing that these of mine are not such Principles of Reason yet I am sure they are Principles from Authority of Scripture as I shall make it appear when I shall come to speak of the Kingdome of God administred by Moses over the Jewes his peculiar people by Covenant But they say again that though the Principles be right yet Common people are not of capacity enough to be made to understand them I should be glad that the Rich and Potent Subjects of a Kingdome or those that are accounted the most Learned were no lesse incapable than they But all men know that the obstructions to this kind of doctrine proceed not so much from the difficulty of the matter as from the interest of them that are to learn Potent men digest hardly any thing that setteth up a Power to bridle their affections
that are dearest to a man are his own life limbs and in the next degree in most men those that concern conjugall affection and after them riches and means of living Therefore the People are to be taught to abstain from violence to one anothers person by private revenges from violation of conjugall honour and from forcible rapine and fraudulent surreption of one anothers goods For which purpose also it is necessary they be shewed the evill consequences of false Judgement by corruption either of Judges or Witnesses whereby the distinction of propriety is taken away and Justice becomes of no effect all which things are intimated in the sixth seventh eighth and ninth Commandements Lastly they are to be taught that not onely the unjust facts but the designes and intentions to do them though by accident hindred are Injustice which consisteth in the pravity of the will as well as in the irregularity of the act And this is the intention of the tenth Commandement and the summe of the second Table which is reduced all to this one Commandement of mutuall Charity Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe as the summe of the first Table is reduced to the love of God whom they had then newly received as their King As for the Means and Conduits by which the people may receive this Instruction wee are to search by what means so many Opinions contrary to the peace of Man-kind upon weak and false Principles have neverthelesse been so deeply rooted in them I mean those which I have in the precedent Chapter specified as That men shall Judge of what is lawfull and unlawfull not by the Law it selfe but by their own Consciences that is to say by their own private Judgements That Subjects sinne in obeying the Commands of the Common-wealth unlesse they themselves have first judged them to be lawfull That their Propriety in their riches is such as to exclude the Dominion which the Common-wealth hath over the same That it is lawfull for Subjects to kill such as they call Tyrants That the Soveraign Power may be divided and the like which come to be instilled into the People by this means They whom necessity or covetousnesse keepeth attent on their trades and labour and they on the other side whom superfluity or sloth carrieth after their sensuall pleasures which two sorts of men take up the greatest part of Man-kind being diverted from the deep meditation which the learning of truth not onely in the matter of Naturall Justice but also of all other Sciences necessarily requireth receive the Notions of their duty chiefly from Divines in the Pulpit and partly from such of their Neighbours or familiar acquaintance as having the Faculty of discoursing readily and plausibly seem wiser and better learned in cases of Law and Conscience than themselves And the Divines and such others as make shew of Learning derive their knowledge from the Universities and from the Schooles of Law or from the Books which by men eminent in those Schooles and Universities have been published It is therefore manifest that the Instruction of the people dependeth wholly on the right teaching of Youth in the Universities But are not may some man say the Universities of England learned enough already to do that or is it you will undertake to teach the Universities Hard questions Yet to the first I doubt not to answer that till towards the later end of Henry the eighth the Power of the Pope was alwayes upheld against the Power of the Common-wealth principally by the Universities and that the doctrines maintained by so many Preachers against the Soveraign Power of the King and by so many Lawyers and others that had their education there is a sufficient argument that though the Universities were not authors of those false doctrines yet they knew not how to plant the truâ⦠For in such a contradiction of Opinions it is most certain that they have not been sufficiently instructed and 't is no wonder if they yet retain a relish of that subtile liquor wherewith they were first seasoned against the Civill Authority But to the later question it is not fit nor needfull for me to say either I or No for any man that sees what I am doing may easily perceive what I think The safety of the People requireth further from him or them that have the Soveraign Power that Justice be equally administred to all degrees of People that is that as well the rich and mighty as poor and obscure persons may be righted of the injuries done them so as the great may have no greater hope of impunity when they doe violence dishonour or any Injury to the meaner sort than when one of these does the like to one of them For in this consisteth Equity to which as being a Precept of the Law of Nature a Soveraign is as much subject as any of the meanest of his People All breaches of the Law are offences against the Common-wealth but there be some that are also against private Persons Those that concern the Common-wealth onely may without breach of Equity be pardoned for every man may pardon what is done against himselfe according to his own diseretion But an offence against a private man cannot in Equity be pardoned without the consent of him that is injured or reasonable satisfaction The Inequality of Subjects proceedeth from the Acts of Soveraign Power and therefore has no more place in the presence of the Soveraign that is to say in a Court of Justice then the Inequality between Kings and their Subjects in the presence of the King of Kings The honour of great Persons is to be valued for their beneficence and the aydes they give to men of inferiour rank or not at all And the violences oppressions and injuries they do are not extenuated but aggravated by the greatnesse of their persons because they have least need to commit them The consequences of this partiality towards the great proceed in this manner Impunity maketh Insolence Insolence Hatred and Hatred an Endeavour to pull down all oppressing and contumelious greatnesse though with the ãâã of the Common wealth To Equall Justice appertaineth also the Equall imposition of Taxes the Equality whereof dependeth not on the Equality of riches but on the Equality of the debt that every man oweth to the Common-wealth for his defence It is not enough for a man to labour for the maintenance of his life but also to fight if need be for the securing of his labour They must either do as the Jewes did after their return from captivity in re-edifying the Temple build with one hand and hold the Sword in the other or else they must hire others to fight for them For the Impositions that are layd on the People by the Soveraign Power are nothing else but the Wages due to them that hold the publique Sword to defend private men in the exercise of severall Trades and Callings Seeing then the benefit that every one
receiveth thereby is the enjoyment of life which is equally dear to poor and rich the debt which a poor man oweth them that defend his life is the same which a rich man oweth for the defence of his saving that the rich who have the service of the poor may be debtors not onely for their own persons but for many more Which considered the Equality of Imposition consisteth rather in the Equality of that which is consumed than of the riches of the persons that consume the same For what reasonis there that he which laboureth much and sparing the fruits of his labour consumeth little should be more charged then he that living idlely getteth little and spendeth all he gets seeing the one hath no more protection from the Common-wealth then the other But when the Impositions are layd upon those things which men consume every man payeth Equally for what he useth Nor is the Common-wealth defrauded by the luxurious waste of private men And whereas many men by accident unevitable become unable to maintain themselves by their labour they ought not to be left to the Charity of private persons but to be provided for as far-forth as the necessities of Nature require by the Lawes of the Common-wealth For as it is Uncharitablenesse in any man to neglect the impotent so it is in the Soveraign of a Common-wealth to expose them to the hazard of such uncertain Charity But for such as have strong bodies the case is otherwise they are to be forced to work and to avoyd the excuse of not finding employment there ought to be such Lawes as may encourage all manner of Arts as Navigation Agriculture Fishing and all manner of Manifacture that requires labour The multitude of poor and yet strong people still encreasing they are to be transplanted into Countries not sufficiently inhabited where neverthelesse they are not to exterminate those they find there but constrain them to inhabit closer together and not range a great deal of ground to snatch what they find but to court each little Plot with art and labour to give them their sustenance in due season And when all the world is overchargd with Inhabitants then the last remedy of all is Warre which provideth for every man by Victory or Death To the care of the Soveraign belongeth the making of Good Lawes But what is a good Law By a Good Law I mean not a. Just Law for no Law can be Unjust The Law is made by the Soveraign Power and all that is done by such Power is warranted and owned by every one of the people and that which every man will have so no man can say is unjust It is in the Lawes of a Common-wealth as in the Lawes of Gaming whatsoever the Gamesters all agree on is Injustice to none of them A good Law is that which is Needfull for the Good of the People and withall Perspicuous For the use of Lawes which are but Rules Authorised is not to bind the People from all Voluntary actions but to direct and keep them in such a motion as not to hurt themselves by their own impetuous desires rashnesse or indiscretion as Hedges are set not to stop Travellers but to keep them in the way And therefore a Law that is not Needfull having not the true End of a Law is not Good A Law may be conceived to be Good when it is for the benefit of the Soveraign though it be not Necessary for the People but it is not so For the good of the Soveraign and People cannot be separated It is a weak Soveraign that has weak Subjects and a weak People whose Soveraign wanteth Power to rule them at his will Unnecessary Lawes are not good Lawes but trapps for Mony which where the right of Soveraign Power is acknowledged are superfluous and where it is not acknowledged unsufficient to defend the People The Perspicuity consisteth not so much in the words of the Law it selfe as in a Declaration of the Causes and Motives for which it was made That is it that shewes us the meaning of the Legislator and the meaning of the Legislator known the Law is more easily understood by few than many words For all words are subject to ambiguity and therefore multiplication of words in the body of the Law is multiplication of ambiguity Besides it seems to imply by too much diligence that whosoever can evade the words is without the compasse of the Law And this is a cause of many unnecessary Processes For when I consider how short were the Lawes of antient times and how they grew by degrees still longer me thinks I see a contention between the Penners and Pleaders of the Law the former seeking to circumscribe the later and the later to evade their circumscriptions and that the Pleaders have got the Victory It belongeth therefore to the Office of a Legislator such as is in all Common-wealths the Supreme Representative be it one Man or an Assembly to make the reason Perspicuous why the Law was made and the Body of the Law it selfe as short but in as proper and significant termes as may be It belongeth also to the Office of the Soveraign to make a right application of Punishments and Rewards And seeing the end of punishing is not revenge and discharge of choler but correction either of the offender or of others by his example the severest Punishments are to be inflicted for those Crimes that are of most Danger to the Publique such as are those which proceed from malice to the Government established those that spring from contempt of Justice those that provoke Indignation in the Multitude and those which unpunished seem Authorised as when they are committed by Sonnes Servants or Favorites of men in Authority For Indignation carrieth men not onely against the Actors and Authors of Injustice but against all Power that is likely to protect them as in the case of Tarquin when for the Insolent act of one of his Sonnes he was driven out of Rome and the Monarchy it selfe dissolved But Crimes of Infirmity such as are those which proceed from great provocation from great fear great need or from ignorance whether the Fact be a great Crime or not there is place many times for Lenity without prejudice to the Common-wealth and Lenity when there is such place for it is required by the Law of Nature The Punishment of the Leaders and teachers in a Commotion not the poore seduced People when they are punished can profit the Common-wealth by their example To be severe to the People is to punish that ignorance which may in great part be imputed to the Soveraign whose fault it was they were no better instructed In like manner it belongeth to the Office and Duty of the Soveraign to apply his Rewards alwayes so as there may arise from them benefit to the Common-wealth wherein consisteth their Use and End and is then done when they that have well
to God but one Worship which then it doth when it commandeth it to be exhibited by Private men Publiquely And this is Publique Worship the property whereof is to be Uniforme For those actions that are done differently by different men cannot be said to be a Publique Worship And therefore where many sorts of Worship be allowed proceeding from the different Religions of Private men it cannot be said there is any Publique Worship nor that the Common-wealth is of any Religion at all And because words and consequently the Attributes of God have their signification by agreement and constitution of men those Attributes are to be held significative of Honour that men intend shall so be and whatsoever may be done by the wills of particular men where there is no Law but Reason may be done by the will of the Common-wealth by Lawes Civill And because a Common-wealth hath no Will nor makes no Lawes but those that are made by the Will of him or them that have the Soveraign Power it followeth that those Attributes which the Soveraign ordaineth in the Worship of God for signes of Honour ought to be taken and used for such by private men in their publique Worship But because not all Actions are signes by Constitution but some are Naturally signes of Honour others of Contumely these later which are those that men are ashamed to do in the sight of them they reverence cannot be made by humane power a part of Divine worship nor the former such as are decent modest humble Behaviour ever be separated from it But whereas there be an infinite number of Actions and Gestures of an indifferent nature such of them as the Common-wealth shall ordain to be Publiquely and Universally in use as signes of Honour and part of Gods Worship are to be taken and used for such by the Subjects And that which is said in the Scripture It is better to obey God than men hath place in the kingdome of God by Pact and not by Nature Having thus briefly spoken of the Naturall Kingdome of God and his Naturall Lawes I will adde onely to this Chapter a short declaration of his Naturall Punishments There is no action of man in this life that is not the beginning of so long a chayn of Consequences as no humane Providence is high enough to give a man a prospect to the end And in this Chayn there are linked together both pleasing and unpleasing events in such manner as he that will do any thing for his pleasure must engage himselfe to suffer all the pains annexed to it and these pains are the Naturall Punishments of those actions which are the beginning of more Harme than Good And hereby it comes to passe that Intemperance is naturally punished with Diseases Rashnesse with Mischances Injustice with the Violence of Enemies Pride with Ruine Cowardise with Oppression Negligent government of Princes with Rebellion and Rebellion with Slaughter For seeing Punishments are consequent to the breach of Lawes Naturall Punishments must be naturally consequent to the breach of the Lawes of Nature and therfore follow them as their naturall not arbitrary effects And thus farre concerning the Constitution Nature and Right of Soveraigns and concerning the Duty of Subjects derived from the Principles of Naturall Reason And now considering how different this Doctrine is from the Practise of the greatest part of the world especially of these Western parts that have received their Morall learning from Rome and Athens and how much depth of Morall Philosophy is required in them that have the Administration of the Soveraign Power I am at the point of believing this my labour as uselesse as the Common-wealth of Plato For he also is of opinion that it is impossible for the disorders of State and change of Governments by Civill Warre ever to be taken away till Soveraigns be Philosophers But when I consider again that the Science of Naturall Justice is the onely Science necessary for Soveraigns and their principall Ministers and that they need not be charged with the Sciences Mathematicall as by Plato they are further than by good Lawes to encourage men to the study of them and that neither Plato nor any other Philosopher hitherto hath put into order and sufficiently or probably proved all the Theoremes of Morall doctrine that men may learn thereby both how to govern and how to obey I recover some hope that one time or other this writing of mine may fall into the hands of a Soveraign who will consider it himselfe for it is short and I think clear without the help of any interessed or envious Interpreter and by the exercise of entire Soveraignty in protecting the Publique teaching of it convert this Truth of Speculation into the Utility of Practice OF A CHRISTIAN COMMON-WEALTH CHAP. XXXII Of the Principles of CHRISTIAN POLITIQUES I Have derived the Rights of Soveraigne Power and the duty of Subjects hitherto from the Principles of Nature onely such as Experience has found true or Consent concerning the use of words has made so that is to say from the nature of Men known to us by Experience and from Definitions of such words as are Essentiall to all Politicall reasoning universally agreed on But in that I am next to handle which is the Nature and Rights of a CHRISTIAN COMMON-VVEALTH whereof there dependeth much upon Supernaturall Revelations of the Will of God the ground of my Discourse must be not only the Naturall Word of God but also the Propheticall Neverthelesse we are not to renounce our Senses and Experience nor that which is the undoubted Word of God our naturall Reason For they are the talents which he hath put into our hands to negotiate till the coming again of our blessed Saviour and therefore not to be folded up in the Napkin of an Implicite aith but employed in the purchase of Justice Peace and true Religion For though there be many things in Gods Word above Reason that it is to say which cannot by naturall reason be either demonstrated or confuted yet there is nothing contrary to it but when it seemeth so the fault is either in our unskilfull Interpretation or erroneous Ratiocination Therefore when any thing therein written is too hard for our examination wee are bidden to captivate our understanding to the Words and not to labour in sifting out a Philosophicall truth by Logick of such mysteries as are not comprehensible nor fall under any rule of naturall science For it is with the mysteries of our Religion as with wholsome pills for the sick which swallowed whole have the vertue to cure but chewed are for the most part cast up again without effect But by the Captivity of our Understanding is not meant a Submission of the Intellectuall faculty to the Opinion of any other man but of the Will to Obedience where obedience is due For Sense Memory Understanding Reason and Opinion are not in our power to change but alwaies
and gave it to the Seventy Elders But as I have shewn before chap. 36. by Spirit is understood the Mind so that the sense of the place is no other than this that God endued them with a mind conformable and subordinate to that of Moses that they might Prophecy that is to say speak to the people in Gods name in such manner as to set forward as Ministers of Moses and by his authority such doctrine as was agreeable to Moses his doctrine For they were but Ministers and when two of them Prophecyed in the Camp it was thought a new and unlawfull thing and as it is in the 27. and 28. verses of the same Chapter they were accused of it and Joshua advised Moses to forbid them as not knowing that it was by Moses his Spirit that they Prophecyed By which it is manifest that no Subject ought to pretend to Prophecy or to the Spirit in opposition to the doctrine established by him whom God hath set in the place of Moses Aaron being dead and after him also Moses the Kingdome as being a Sacerdotall Kingdome descended by vertue of the Covenant to Aarons Son Eleazar the High Priest And God declared him next under himself for Soveraign at the same time that he appointed Joshua for the Generall of their Army For thus God saith expressely Numb 27. 21. concerning Joshua He shall stand before Eleazar the Priest who shall ask counsell for him before the Lord at his word shall they goe out and at his word they shall come in both he aââ¦d all the Children of Israel with him Therefore the Supreme Power of making War and Peace was in the Priest The Supreme Power of Judicature belonged also to the High Priest For the Book of the Law was in their keeping and the Priests and Levites onely were the subordinate Judges in causes Civill as appears in Deut. 17. 8 9 10. And for the manner of Gods worship there was never doubt made but that the High Priest till the time of Saul had the Supreme Authority Therefore the Civill and Ecclesiasticall Power were both joined together in one and the same person the High Priest and ought to bee so in whosoever governeth by Divine Right that is by Authority immediate from God After the death of Joshua till the time of Saul the time between is noted frequently in the Book of Judges that there was in those dayes no King in Israel and sometimes with this addition that every man did that which was right in his own eyes By which is to bee understood that where it is said there was no King is meant there was no Soveraign Power in Israel And so it was if we consider the Act and Exercise of such power For after the death of Joshua Eleazar there arose another generation Judges 2. 10. that knew not the Lord nor the works which he had done for Israel but did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim And the Jews had that quality which St. Paul noteth to look for a sign not onely before they would submit themselves to the government of Moses but also after they had obliged themselves by their submission Whereas Signs and Miracles had for End to procure Faith not to keep men from violating it when they have once given it for to that men are obliged by the law of Nature But if we consider not the Exercise but the Right of Governing the Soveraign power was still in the High Priest Therefore whatsoever obedience was yeelded to any of the Judges who were men chosen by God extraordinarily to save his rebellious subjects out of the hands of the enemy it cannot bee drawn into argument against the Right the High Priest had to the Soveraign Power in all matters both of Policy and Religion And neither the Judges nor Samuel himselfe had an ordinary but extraordinary calling to the Government and were obeyed by the Israelites not out of duty but out of reverence to their favour with God appearing in their wisdome courage or felicity Hitherto therefore the Right of Regulating both the Policy and the Religion were inseparable To the Judges succeeded Kings And whereas before all authority both in Religion and Policy was in the High Priest so now it was all in the King For the Soveraignty over the people which was before not onely by vertue of the Divine Power but also by a particular pact of the Israelites in God and next under him in the High Priest as his Vicegerent on earth was cast off by the People with the consent of God himselfe For when they said to Samuel 1 Sam. 8. 5. make us a King to judge us like all the Nations they signified that they would no more bee governed by the commands that should bee laid upon them by the Priest in the name of God but by one that should command them in the same manner that all other nations were commandcd and consequently in deposing the High Priest of Royall authority they deposed that peculiar Government of God And yet God consented to it saying to Samuel verse 7. Hearken unto the voice of the People in all that they shall say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected mee that I should not reign over them Having therefore rejected God in whose Right the Priests governed there was no authority left to the Priests but such as the King was pleased to allow them which was more or lesse according as the Kings were good or evill And for the Government of Civill affaires it is manifest it was all in the hands of the King For in the same Chapter verse 20. They say they will be like all the Nations that their King shall be their Judge and goe before them and fight their battells that is he shall have the whole authority both in Peace and War In which is contained also the ordering of Religion for there was no other Word of God in that time by which to regulate Religion but the Law of Moses which was their Civill Law Besides we read 1 Kings 2. 27. that Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being Priest before the Lord He had therefore authority over the High Priest as over any other Subject which is a great mark of Supremacy in Religion And we read also 1 Kings 8. that hee dedicated the Temple that he blessed the People and that he himselfe in person made that excellent prayer used in the Consecrations of all Churches and houses of Prayer which is another great mark of Supremacy in Religion Again we read 2 Kings 22. that when there was question concerning the Book of the Law found in the Temple the same was not decided by the High Priest but Josiah sent both him and others to enquire concerning it of Hulda the Prophetesse which is another mark of the Supremacy in Religion Lastly wee read 1 Chron. 26. 30. that David made Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites Officers of Israel
theââ¦efore manifest that Christ hath not left to his Ministers in this world unlesse they be also endued with Civill Authority any authority to Command other men But what may some object if a King or a Senate or other Soveraign Person forbid us to beleeve in Christ To this I answer that such forbidding is of no effect because Beleef and Unbeleef never follow mens Commands Faith is a gift of God which Man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture And if it be further asked What if wee bee commanded by our lawfull Prince to say with our tongue wee beleeve not must we obey such command Profession with the tongue is but an externall thing and no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and wherein a Christian holding firmely in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian Naaman was converted in his heart to the God of Israel For hee saith 2 Kings 5. 17. Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other Gods but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant that when my Master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my hand and I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon when I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing This the Prophet approved and bid him Goe in peace Here Naaman beleeved in his heart but by bowing before the Idol Rimmon he denyed the true God in effect as much as if he had done it with his lips But then what shall we answer to our Saviours saying Whosoever denyeth me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in Heaven This we may say that whatsoever a Subject as Naaman was is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not in order to his own mind but in order to the laws of his country that action is not his but his Soveraigns nor is it he that in this case denyeth Christ before men but his Governour and the law of his countrey If any man shall accuse this doctrine as repugnant to true and unfegined Christianity I ask him in case there should be a subject in any Christian Common-wealth that should be inwardly in his heart of the Mahometan Religion whether if his Soveraign command him to bee present at the divine service of the Christian Church and that on pain of death he think that Mahometan obliged in conscience to suffer death for that cause rather than to obey that command of his lawfull Prince If he say he ought rather to suffer death then he authorizeth all private men to disobey their Princes in maintenance of their Religion true or false if he say he ought to bee obedient then he alloweth to himself that which hee denyeth to another contrary to the words of our Saviour Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you that doe yee unto them and contrary to the Law of Nature which is the indubitable everlasting Law of God Do not to another that which thou wouldest not he should doe unto thee But what then shall we say of all those Martyrs we read of in the History of the Church that they have needlessely cast away their lives For answer hereunto we are to distinguish the persons that have been for that cause put to death whereof some have received a Calling to preach and professe the Kingdome of Christ openly others have had no such Calling nor more has been required of them than their owne faith The former sort if they have been put to death for bearing witnesse to this point that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead were true Martyrs For a Martyr is to give the true definition of the word a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah which none can be but those that conversed with him on earth and saw him after he was risen For a Witnesse must have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good And that none but such can properly be called Martyrs of Christ is manifest out of the words of St. Peter Act. 1. 21 22. VVherefore of these men which have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out amongst us beginning from the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day hee was taken up from us must one one be ordained to be a Martyr that is a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection Where we may observe that he which is to bee a Witnesse of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ that is to say of the truth of this fundamentall article of Christian Religion that Jesus was the Christ must be some Disciple that conversed with him and saw him before and after his Resurrection and consequently must be one of his originall Disciples whereas they which were not so can Witnesse no more but that their antecessors said it and are therefore but Witnesses of other mens testimony and are but second Martyrs or Martyrs of Christs Witnesses He that to maintain every doctrine which he himself draweth out of the History our Saviours of life and of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles or which he beleeveth upoÌ the authority of a private man wil oppose the Laws and Authority of the Civill State is very far from being a Martyr of Christ or a Martyr of his Martyrs 'T is one Article onely which to die for meriteth so honorable a name and that Article is this that Iesus is the Christ that is to say He that hath redeemed us aud shall come again to give us salvation and eternall life in his glorious Kingdome To die for every tenet that serveth the ambition or profit of the Clergy is not required nor is it the Death of the Witnesse but the Testimony it self that makes the Martyr for the word signifieth nothing else but the man that beareth Witnesse whether he be put to death for his testimony or not Also he that is not sent to preach this fundamentall article but taketh it upon him of his private authority though he be a Witnesse and consequently a Martyr either primary of Christ or secundary of his Apostles Disciples or their Successors yet is he not obliged to suffer death for that cause because being not called thereto t is not required at his hands nor ought hee to complain if he loseth the reward he expecteth from those that never set him on work None therefore can be a Martyr neither of the first nor second degree that have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the flesh that is to say none but such as are sent to the conversion of Infidels For no man is a Witnesse to him that already beleeveth and therefore needs no Witnesse but to them that deny or doubt or have not heard it Christ sent his Apostles and his Seventy Disciples with
or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one yee are not to eat But to Excommunicate a man that held this foundation that Iesus was the Christ for difference of opinion in other points by which that Foundation was not destroyed there appeareth no authority in the Scripture nor example in the Apostles There is indeed in St. Paul Titus 3. 10. a text that seemeth to be to the contrary A man that is an Haeretique after the first and second admonition reject For an Haeretiqne is he that being a member of the Church teacheth neverthelesse some private opinion which the Church has forbidden and such a one S. Paul adviseth Titus after the first and second admonition to Reject But to Reject in this place is not to Excommunicate the Man But to give over admonishing him to let him alone to set by disputing with him as one that is to be convinced onely by himselfe The same Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2. 23. Foolish and unlearned questions avoid The word Avoid in this place and Reject in the former is the same in the Originall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but Foolish questions may bee set by without Excommunication And again Tit. 3. 9. Avoid Foolish questions where the Originall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã set themby is equivalent to the former word Reject There is no other place that can so much as colourably be drawn to countenance the Casting out of the Church faithfull men such as beleeved the foundation onely for a singular superstructure of their own proceeding perhaps from a good pious conscience But on the contrary all such places as command avoiding such disputes are written for a Lesson to Pastors such as Timothy and Titus were not to make new Articles of Faith by determining every small controversie which oblige men to a needlesse burthen of Conscience or provoke them to break the union of the Church Which Lesson the Apostles themselves observed well S. Peter and S. Paul though their controversie were great as we may read in Gal. 2. 11. yet they did not cast one another out of the Church Neverthelesse during the Apostles times there were other Pastors that observed it not As Diotrephes 3 Iohn 9. c. who cast out of the Church such as S. John himself thought fit to be received into it out of a pride he took in Praeeminence so early it was that Vain-glory and Ambition had found entrance into the Church of Christ. That a man be liable to Excommunication there be many conditions requisite as First that he be a member of some Commonalty that is to say of some lawfull Assembly that is to say of some Christian Church that hath power to judge of the cause for which hee is to bee Excommunicated For where there is no Community there can bee no Excommunication nor where there is no power to Judge can there bee any power to give Sentence From hence it followeth that one Church cannot be Excommunicated by another For either they have equall power to Excommunicate each other in which case Excommunication is not Discipline nor an act of Authority but Schisme and Dissolution of charity or one is so subordinate to the other as that they both have but one voice and then they be but one Church and the part Excommunicated is no more a Church but a dissolute number of individuall persons And because the sentence of Excommunication importeth an advice not to keep company nor so much as to eat with him that is Excommunicate if a Soveraign Prince or Assembly bee Excommunicate the sentence is of no effect For all Subjects are bound to be in the company and presence of their own Soveraign when he requireth it by the law of Nature nor can they lawfully either expell him from any place of his own Dominion whether profane or holy nor go out of his Dominion without his leave much lesse if he call them to that honour refuse to eat with him And as to other Princes and States because they are not parts of one and the same congregation they need not any other sentence to keep them from keeping companywith the State Excommunicate for the very Institution as it uniteth many men into one Community so it dissociateth one Community from another so that Excommunication is not needfull for keeping Kings and States asunder nor has any further effect then is in the nature of Policy it selfe unlesse it be to instigate Princes to warre upon one another Nor is the Excommunication of a Christian Subject that obeyeth the laws of his own Soveraign whether Christian or Heathen of any effect For if he beleeve that Iesus is the Christ he hath the Spirit of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. and God dwelleth in him and he in God 1 Joh. 4. 15. But hee that hath the Spirit of God hee that dwelleth in God hee in whom God dwelleth can receive no harm by the Excommunication of men Therefore he that beleeveth Jesus to be the Christ is free from all the dangers threatned to persons Excommunicate He that beleveeth it not is no Christian. Therefore a true and unfeigned Christian is not liable to Excommunication Nor he also that is a professed Christian till his Hypocrisy appear in his Manners that is till his behaviour bee contrary to the law of his Soveraign which is the rule of Manners and which Christ and his Apostles have commanded us to be subject to For the Church cannot judge of Manners but by externall Actions which Actions can never bee unlawfull but when they are against the Law of the Common-wealth If a mans Father or Mother or Master bee Excommunicate yet are not the Children forbidden to keep them Company nor to Eat with them for that were for the most part to oblige them not to eat at all for want of means ââ¦o get food and to authorise them to disobey their Parents and Masters contrary to the Precept of the Apostles In summe the Power of Excommunication cannot be extended further than to the end for which the Apostles and Pastors of the Church have their Commission from our Saviour which is not to rule by Command and Coaction but by Teaching and Direction of men in the way of Salvation in the world to come And as a Master in any Science may abandon his Scholar when hee obstinately neglecteth the practise of his rules but not accuse him of Injustice because he was never bound to obey him so a Teacher of Christian doctrine may abandon his Disciples that obstinately continue in an unchristian life but he cannot say they doe him wrong because they are not obliged to obey him For to a Teacher that shall so complain may be applyed the Answer of God to Samuel in the like place They have not rejected thee but mee Excommunication therefore when it wanteth the assistance of the Civill Power as it doth when a Christian State or Prince is Excommunicate by a forain Authority is without effect and consequently ought
forward they were accounted the Law of the Jews and for such translated into Greek by Seventy Elders of Judaea and put into the Library of Ptolemy at Alexandria and approved for the Word of God Now seeing Esdras was the High Priest and the High Priest was their Civill Soveraigne it is manifest that the Scriptures were never made Laws but by the Soveraign Civill Power By the Writings of the Fathers that lived in the time before that Christian Religion was received and authorised by Constantine the Emperour we may find that the Books wee now have of the New Testament were held by the Christians of that time except a few in respect of whose paucity the rest were called the Catholique Church and others Haeretiques for the dictates of the Holy Ghost and consequently for the Canon or Rule of Faith such was the reverence and opinion they had of their Teachers as generally the reverence that the Disciples bear to their first Masters in all manner of doctrine they receive from them is not small Therefore there is no doubt but when S. Paul wrote to the Churches he had converted or any other Apostle or Disciple of Christ to those which had then embraced Christ they received those their Writings for the true Christian Doctrine But in that time when not the Power and Authority of the Teacher but the Faith of the Hearer caused them to receive it it was not the Apostles that made their own Writings Canonicall but every Convert made them so to himself But the question here is not what any Christian made a Law or Canon to himself which he might again reject by the same right he received it but what was so made a Canon to them as without injustice they could not doe any thing contrary thereunto That the New Testament should in this sense be Canonicall that is to say a Law in any place where the Law of the Common-wealth had not made it so is contrary to the nature of a Law For a Law as hath been already shewn is the Commandement of that Man or Assembly to whom we have given Soveraign Authority to make such Rules for the direction of our actions as hee shall think fit and to punish us when we doe any thing contrary to the same When therefore any other man shall offer unto us any other Rules which the Soveraign Ruler hath not prescribed they are but Counsell and Advice which whether good or bad hee that is counselled may without injustice refuse to observe and when contrary to the Laws already established without injustice cannot observe how good soever he conceiveth it to be I say he cannot in this case observe the same in his actions nor in his dicourse with other men though he may without blame beleeve his private Teachers and wish he had the liberty to practise their advice and that it were publiquely received for Law For internall Faith is in its own nature invisible and consequently exempted from all humane jurisdiction whereas the words and actions that proceeed from it as breaches of our Civill obedience are injustice both before God and Man Seeing then our Saviour hath denyed his Kingdome to be in this world seeing he had said he came not to judge but to save the world he hath not subjected us to other Laws than those of the Common-wealth that is the Jews to the Law of Moses which he saith Mat. 5. he came not to destroy but to fulfill and other Nations to the Laws of their severall Soveraigns and all men to the Laws of Nature the observing whereof both he himselfe and his Apostles have in their teaching recommended to us as a necessary condition of being admitted by him in the last day into his eternall Kingdome wherein shall be Protection and Life everlasting Seeing then our Saviour and his Apostles left not new Laws to oblige us in this world but new Doctrine to prepare us for the next the Books of the New Testament which containe that Doctrine untill obedience to them was commanded by them that God had given power to on earth to be Legislators were not obligatory Canons that is Laws but onely good and safe advice for the direction of sinners in the way to salvation which every man might take and refuse at his owne perill without injustice Again our Saviour Christs Commission to his Apostles and Disciples was to Proclaim his Kingdome not present but to come and to Teach all Nations and to Baptize them that should beleeve and to enter into the houses of them that should receive them and where they were not received to shake off the dust of their feet against them but not to call for fire from heaven to destroy them nor to compell them to obedience by the Sword In all which there is nothing of Power but of Perswasion He sent them out as Sheep unto Wolves not as Kings to their Subjects They had not in Commission to make Laws but to obey and teach obedience to Laws made and consequently they could not make their Writings obligatory Canons without the help of the Soveraign Civill Power And therefore the Scripture of the New Testament is there only Law where the lawfull Civill Power hath made it so And there also the King or Soveraign maketh it a Law to himself by which he subjecteth himselfe not to the Doctor or Apostle that converted him but to God himself and his Son Jesus Christ as immediately as did the Apostles themselves That which may seem to give the New Testament in respect of those that have embraced Christian Doctrine the force of Laws in the times and places of persecution is the decrees they made amongst themselves in their Synods For we read Acts 15. 28. the stile of the Councell of the Apostles the Elders and the whole Church in this manner It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things c. which is a stile that signifieth a Power to lay a burthen on them that had received their Doctrine Now to lay a burden on another seemeth the same that to oblige and therefore the Acts of that Councell were Laws to the then Christians Neverthelesse they were no more Laws than are these other Precepts Repent Be Baptized Keep the Commandements Beleeve the Gospel Come unto me Sell all that thou hast Give it to the poor and Follow me which are not Commands but Invitations and Callings of men to Christianity like that of Esay 55. 1. Ho every man that thirââ¦teth come yee to the waters come and buy wine and milke without money For first the Apostles power was no other than that of our Saviour to invite men to embrace the Kingdome of God which they themselves acknowledged for a Kingdome not present but to come and they that have no Kingdome can make no Laws And secondly if their Acts of Councell were Laws they could not without sin be disobeyed But we read
not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin but that they died in their sins that is that their sins against the Laws to which they owed obedience were not pardoned And those Laws were the Laws of Nature and the Civill Laws of the State whereto every Christian man had by pact submitted himself And therefore by the Burthen which the Apostles might lay on such as they had converted are not to be understood Laws but Conditions proposed to those that sought Salvation which they might accept or refuse at their own perill without a new sin though not without the hazard of being condemned and excluded out of the Kingdome of God for their sins past And therefore of Infidels S. John saith not the wrath of God shall come upon them but the wrath of God remaineth upon them and not that they shall be condemned but that they are condemned already Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of Faith is Remission of sins unlesse we conceive withall that the dammage of Infidelity is the Retention of the same sins But to what end is it may some man aske that the Apostles and other Pastors of the Church after their time should meet together to agree upon what Doctrine should be taught both for Faith and Manners if no man were obliged to observe their Decrees To this may be answered that the Apostles and Elders of that Councell were obliged even by their entrance into it to teach the Doctrine therein concluded and decreed to be taught so far forth as no precedent Law to which they were obliged to yeeld obedience was to the contrary but not that all other Christians should be obliged to observe what they taught For though they might deliberate what each of them should teach yet they could not deliberate what others should do unless their Assembly had had a Legislative Power which none could have but Civil Soveraigns For though God be the Soveraign of all the world we are not bound to take for his Law whatsoever is propounded by every man in his name nor any thing contrary to the Civill Law which God hath expressely commanded us to obey Seeing then the Acts of Councell of the Apostles were then no Laws but Counsells much lesse are Laws the Acts of any other Doctors or Councells since if assembled without the Authority of the Civill Soveraign And consequently the Books of the New Testament though most perfect Rules of Christian Doctrine could not be made Laws by any other authority then that of Kings or Soveraign Assemblies The first Councell that made of the Scriptures we now have Canon is not extant For that Collection of the Canons of the Apostles attributed to Clemens the first Bishop of Rome after S. Peter is subject to question For though the Canonicall books bee there reckoned up yet these words Sint vobis omnibus Clericis Lââ¦icis Libri venerandi c. containe a distinction of Clergy and Laity that was not in use so neer St. Peters time The first Councell for setling the Canonicall Scripture that is extant is that of Laodicea Can. 59. which forbids the reading of other Books then those in the Churches which is a Mandate that is not addressed to every Chââ¦istian but to those onely that had authority to read any thing publiquely in the Church that is to Ecclesiastiques onely Of Ecclesiasticall Officers in the time of the Apostles some were Magisteriall some Ministeriall Magisteriall were the Offices of preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to Infidels of administaing the Sacraments and Divine Service and of teaching the Rules of Faith and Manners to those that were converted Ministeriall was the Office of Deacons that is of them that were appointed to the administration of the secular necessities of the Church at such time as they lived upon a common stock of mony raised out of the voluntary contributions of the faithfull Amongst the Officers Magisteriall the first and principall were the Apostles whereof there were at first but twelve and these were chosen and constituted by our Saviour himselfe and their Office was not onely to Preach Teach and Baptize but also to be Narââ¦yrs Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection This Testimony was the specificall and essentiall mark whereby the Apostleship was distinguished from other Magistracy Ecclesiasticall as being necessary for an Apostle either to have seen our Saviour after his Resurrection or to have conversed with him before and seen his works and other arguments of his Divinity whereby they might be taken for sufficient Witnesses And therefore at the election of a new Apostle in the place of Judas Iscariot S. Peter saith Acts 1. 21 22. Of these men that have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection where by this word must is implyed a necessary property of an Apostle to have companyed with the first and prime Apostles in the time that our Saviour manifested himself in the flesh The first Apostle of those which were not constituted by Christ in the time he was upon the Earth was Matthias chosen in this manner There were assembled together in Jerusalem about 120 Christians Acts 1. 15. These appointed two Ioseph the Iust and Matthias ver 23. and caused lots to be drawn and ver 26. the Lot fell on Matthias and he was numbred with the Apostles So that here we see the ordination of this Apostle was the act of the Congregation and not of St. Peter nor of the eleven otherwise then as Members of the Assembly After him there was never any other Apostle ordained but Paul and Barnabas which was done as we read Acts 13. 1 2 3. in this manner There were in the Church that was at Antioch certaine Prophets and Teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul As they ministred unto the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said Separate mee Barnabas and Saul for the worke whereunto I have called them And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away By which it is manifest that though they were called by the Holy Ghost their Calling was declared unto them and their Mission authorized by the particular Church of Antioch And that this their calling was to the Apostleship is apparent by that that they are both called Acts 14. 14. Apostles And that it was by vertue of this act of the Church of Antioch that they were Apostles S. Paul declareth plainly Rom. 1. 1. in that hee useth the word which the Holy Ghost used at his calling For hee stileth himself An Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God alluding to the words of
have all manner of Power over their Subjects that can be given to man for the government of mens externall actions both in Policy and Religion and may make such Laws as themselves shall judge fittest for the government of their own Subjects both as they are the Common-wealth and as they are the Church for both State and Church are the same men If they please therefore they may as many Christian Kings now doe commit the government of their Subjects in matters of Religion to the Pope but then the Pope is in that point Subordinate to them and exerciseth that Charge in anothers Dominion Iure Civili in the Right of the Civill Soveraign not Iure Divino in Gods Right and may therefore be discharged of that Office when the Soveraign for the good of his Subjects shall think it necessary They may also if they please commit the care of Religion to one Supreme Pastor or to an Assembly of Pastors and give them what power over the Church or one over another they think most convenient and what titles of honor as of Bishops Archbishops Priests or Presbyters they will and make such Laws for their maintenance either by Tithes or otherwise as they please so they doe it out of a sincere conscience of which God onely is the Judge It is the Civill Soveraign that is to appoint Judges and Interpreters of the Canonicall Scriptures for it is he that maketh them Laws It is he also that giveth strength to Excommunications which but for such Laws and Punishments as may humble obstinate Libertines and reduce them to union with the rest of the Church would bee contemned In summe he hath the Supreme Power in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill as far as concerneth actions and words for those onely are known and may be accused and of that which cannot be accused there is no Judg at all but God that knoweth the heart And these Rights are incident to all Soveraigns whether Monarchs or Assemblies for they that are the Representants of a Christian People are Representants of the Church for a Church and a Common-wealth of Christian People are the same thing Though this that I have here said and in other places of this Book seem cleer enough for the asserting of the Supreme Ecclesiasticall Power to Christian Soveraigns yet because the Pope of Romes challenge to that Power universally hath been maintained chiefly and I think as strongly as is possible by Cardinall Bellarmine in his Controversie De Summo Pontifice I have thought it necessary as briefly as I can to examine the grounds and strength of his Discourse Of five Books he hath written of this subject the first containeth three Questions One Which is simply the best government Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy and concludeth for neither but for a government mixt of all three Another which of these is the best Government of the Church and concludeth for the mixt but which should most participate of Monarchy The third whether in this mixt Monarchy St. Peter had the place of Monarch Concerning his first Conclusion I have already sufficiently proved chapt 18. that all Governments which men are bound to obey are Simple and Absolute In Monarchy there is but One Man Supreme and all other men that have any kind of Power in the State have it by his Commission during his pleasure and execute it in his name And in Aristocracy and Democracy but One Supreme Assembly with the same Power that in Monarchy belongeth to the Monarch which is not a Mixt but an Absolute Soveraignty And of the three sorts which is the best is not to be disputed where any one of them is already established but the present ought alwaies to be preferred maintained and accounted best because it is against both the Law of Nature and the Divine positive Law to doe any thing tending to the subversion thereof Besides it maketh nothing to the Power of any Pastor unlesse he have the Civill Soveraignty what kind of Government is the best because their Calling is not to govern men by Commandement but to teach them and perswade them by Arguments and leave it to them to consider whether they shall embrace or reject the Doctrine taught For Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy do mark out unto us three sorts of Soveraigns not of Pastors or as we may say three sorts of Masters of Families not three sorts of Schoolmasters for their children And therefore the second Conclusion concerning the best form of Government of the Church is nothing to the question of the Popes Power without his own Dominions For in all other Common-wealths his Power if hee have any at all is that of the Schoolmaster onely and not of the Master of the Family For the third Conclusion which is that St. Peter was Monarch of the Church he bringeth for his chiefe argument the place of S. Matth. chap. 16. 18 19. Thou art Peter And upon this rock I will build my Church c. And I will give thee the keyes of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place well considered proveth no more but that the Church of Christ hath for foundation one onely Article namely that which Peter in the name of all the Apostles professing gave occasion to our Saviour to speak the words here cited which that wee may cleerly understand we are to consider that our Saviour preached by himself by John Baptist and by his Apostles nothing but this Article of Faith that he was the Christ all other Articles requiring faith no otherwise than as founded on that John began first Mat. 3. 2. preaching only this The Kingdome of God is at hand Then our Saviour himself Mat. 4. 17. preached the same And to his Twelve Apostles when he gave them their Commission Mat. 10. 7. there is no mention of preaching any other Article but that This was the fundamentall Article that is the Foundation of the Churches Faith Afterwards the Apostles being returned to him he asketh them all Mat. 16. 13. not Peter onely Who men said he was and they answered that some said he was Iohn the Baptist some Elias and others Ieremias or one of the Prophets Then ver 15. he asked them all again not Peter onely Whom say yee that I am Therefore S. Peter answered for them all Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God which I said is the Foundation of the Faith of the whole Church from which our Saviour takes the occasion of saying Vpon this stone I will build my Church By which it is manifest that by the Foundation-Stone of the Church was meant the Fundamentall Article of the Churches Faith But why then will some object doth our Saviour interpose these words Thou art Peter If the originall of this text had been rigidly translated the reason would easily have appeared We are therefore to consider that the
Laws if any else can make a Law besides himselfe all Common-wealth and consequently all Peace and Justice must cease which is contrary to all Laws both Divine and Humane Nothing therefore can be drawn from these or any other places of Scripture to prove the Decrees of the Pope where he has not also the Civill Soveraignty to be Laws The last point hee would prove is this That our Saviour Christ has committed Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction immediately to none but the Pope Wherein he handleth not the Question of Supremacy between the Pope and Christian Kings but between the Pope and other Bishops And first he sayes it is agreed that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is at least in the generall de Iure Divino that is in the Right of God for which he alledges S. Paul Ephes. 4. 11. where hee sayes that Christ after his Ascension into heaven gave gifts to men some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some Teachers And thence inferres they have indeed their Jurisdiction in Gods Right but will not grant they have it immediately from God but derived through the Pope But if a man may be said to have his Jurisdiction de Jure Divino and yet not immediately what lawfull Jurisdiction though but Civill is there in a Christian Common-wealth that is not also de Jure Divino For Christian Kings have their Civill Power from God immediately and the Magistrates under him exercise their severall charges in vertue of his Commission wherein that which they doe is no lesse de Jure Divino mediato than that which the Bishops doe in vertue of the Popes Ordination All lawfull Power is of God immediately in the Supreme Governour and mediately in those that have Authority under him So that either hee must grant every Constable in the State to hold his Office in the Right of God or he must not hold that any Bishop holds his so besides the Pope himselfe But this whole Dispute whether Christ left the Jurisdiction to the Pope onely or to other Bishops also if considered out of those places where the Pope has the Civill Soveraignty is a contention de lana Caprina For none of them where they are not Soveraigns has any Jurisdiction at all For Jurisdiction is the Power of hearing and determining Causes between man and man and can belong to none but him that hath the Power to prescribe the Rules of Right and Wrong that is to make Laws and with the Sword of Justice to compell men to obey his Decisions pronounced either by himself or by the Judges he ordaineth thereunto which none can lawfully do but the Civill Soveraign Therefore when he alledgeth out of the 6 of Luke that our Saviour called his Disciples together and chose twelve of them which he named Apostles he proveth that he Elected them all except Matthias Paul and Barnabas and gave them Power and Command to Preach but not to Judge of Causes between man and man for that is a Power which he refused to take upon himselfe saying Who made me a Iudge or a Divider amongst you and in another place My Kingdome is not of this world But hee that hath not the Power to hear and determine Causes between man and man cannot be said to have any Jurisdiction at all And yet this hinders not but that our Saviour gave them Power to Preach and Baptize in all parts of the world supposing they were not by their own lawfull Soveraign forbidden For to our own Soveraigns Christ himself and his Apostles have in sundry places expressely commanded us in all things to be obedient The arguments by which he would prove that Bishops receive their Jurisdiction from the Pope seeing the Pope in the Dominions of other Princes hath no Jurisdiction himself are all in vain Yet because they prove on the contrary that all Bishops receive Jurisdiction when they have it from their Civill Soveraigns I will not omit the recitall of them The first is from Numbers 11. where Moses not being able alone to undergoe the whole burthen of administring the affairs of the People of Israel God commanded him to choose Seventy Elders and took part of the spirit of Moses to put it upon those Seventy Elders by which is understood not that God weakned the spirit of Moses for that had not eased him at all but that they had all of them their authority from him wherein he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place But seeing Moses had the entire Soveraignty in the Common-wealth of the Jews it is manifest that it is thereby signified that they had their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and therefore that place proveth that Bishops in every Christian Common-wealth have their Authority from the Civill Soveraign and from the Pope in his own Territories only and not in the Territories of any other State The second argument is from the nature of Monarchy wherein all Authority is in one Man and in others by derivation from him But the Government of the Church he says is Monarchicall This also makes for Christian Monarchs For they are really Monarchs of their own people that is of their own Church for the Church is the same thing with a Christian people whereas the Power of the Pope though hee were S. Peter is neither Monarchy nor hath any thing of Archicall nor Craticall but onely of Didacticall For God accepteth not a forced but a willing obedience The third is from that the Sea of S. Peter is called by S. Cyprian the Head the Source the Roote the Sun from whence the Authority of Bishops is derived But by the Law of Nature which is a better Principle of Right and Wrong than the word of any Doctor that is but a man the Civill Soveraign in every Common-wealth is the Head the Source the Root and the Sun from which all Jurisdiction is derived And therefore the Jurisdiction of Bishops is derived from the Civill Soveraign The fourth is taken from the Inequality of their Jurisdictions For if God saith he had given it them immediately he had given aswell Equality of Jurisdiction as of Order But wee see some are Bishops but of own Town some of a hundred Towns and some of many whole Provinces which differences were not determined by the command of God their Jurisdiction therefore is not of God but of Man and one has a greater another a lesse as it pleaseth the Prince of the Church Which argument if he had proved before that the Pope had had an Universall Jurisdiction over all Christians had been for his purpose But seeing that hath not been proved and that it is notoriously known the large Jurisdiction of the Pope was given him by those that had it that is by the Emperours of Rome for the Patriarch of Constantinople upon the same title namely of being Bishop of the Capitall City of the Empire and Seat of the Emperour claimed to be equall to him it followeth that all other Bishops
dangerously to all purposes by sharing with another Indirect Power as with a Direct one But to come now to his Arguments The first is this The Civill Power is subject to the Spirituall Therefore he that hath the Supreme Power Spirituall hath right to command Temporall Princes and dispose of their Temporalls in order to the Spirituall As for the dictinction of Temporall and Spirituall let us consider in what sense it may be said intelligibly that the Temporall or Civill Power is subject to the Spirituall There be but two ways that those words can be made sense For when wee say one Power is subject to another Power the meaning either is that he which hath the one is subject to him that hath the other or that the one Power is to the other as the means to the end ââ¦r wee cannot understand that one Power hath Power over another Power or that one Power can have Right or Command over another For Subjection Command Right and Power are accidents not of Powers but of Persons One Power may be subordinate to another as the art of a Sadler to the art of a Rider If then it bee granted that the Civill Government be ordained as a means to bring us to a Spirituall felicity yet it does not follow that if a King have the Civill Power and the Pope the Spirituall that therefore the King is bound to obey the Pope more then every Sadler is bound to obey every Rider Therefore as from Subordination of an Art cannot be inferred the Subjection of the Professor so from the Subordination of a Government cannot be inferred the Subjection of the Governor When therefore he saith the Civill Power is Subject to the Spirituall his meaning is that the Civill Soveraign is Subject to the Spirituall Soveraign And the Argument stands thus The Civil Soveraign is subject to the Spirituall Therefore the Spirituall Prince may command Temporall Princes Where the Conclusion is the same with the Antecedent he should have proved But to prove it he alledgeth first this reason Kings and Popes Clergy and Laity make but one Common-wealth that is to say but one Church And in all Bodies the Members depend one upon another But things Spirituall depend not of things Temporall Therefore Temporall depend on Spirituall And therefore are Subject to them In which Argumentation there be two grosse errours one is that all Christian Kings Popes Clergy and all other Christian men make but one Common-wealth For it is evident that France is one Common-wealth Spain another and Venice a third c. And these consist of Christians and therefore also are severall Bodies of Christians that is to say severall Churches And their severall Soveraigns Represent them whereby they are capable of commanding and obeying of doing and suffering as a naturall man which no Generall or Universall Church is till it have a Representant which it hath not on Earth for if it had there is no doubt but that all Christendome were one Common-wealth whose Soveraign were that Representant both in things Spirituall and Temporall And the Pope to make himself this Representant wanteth three things that our Saviour hath not given him to Command and to Iudge and to Punish otherwise than by Excommunication to run from those that will not Learn of him For though the Pope were Christs onely Vicar yet he cannot exercise his government till our Saviours second coming And then also it is not the Pope but St. Peter himselfe with the other Apostles that are to be Judges of the world The other errour in this his first Argument is that he sayes the Members of every Common-wealth as of a naturall Body depend one of another It is true they cohaere together but they depend onely on the Soveraign which is the Soul of the Common-wealth which failing the Common-wealth is dissolved into a Civill war no one man so much as cohaering to another for want of a common Dependance on a known Soveraign Just as the Members of the naturall Body dissolve into Earth for want of a Soul to hold them together Therefore there is nothing in this similitude from whence to inferre a dependance of the Laity on the Clergy or of the Temporall Officers on the Spirituall but of both on the Civill Soveraign which ought indeed to direct his Civill commands to the Salvation of Souls but is not therefore subject to any but God himselfe And thus you see the laboured fallacy of the first Argument to deceive such men as distinguish not between the Subordination of Actions in the way to the End and the Subjection of Persons one to another in the administration of the Means For to every End the Means are determined by Nature or by God himselfe supernaturally but the Power to make men use the Means is in every nation resigned by the Law of Nature which forbiddeth men to violate their Faith given to the Civill Soveraign His second Argument is this Every Common-wealth because it is supposed to ââ¦e perfect and sufficient in it self may command any other Common-wealth not subject to it and force it to change the administration of the Government nay depose the Prince and set another in his room if it cannot otherwise defend it selfe against the injuries he goes about to doe them much more may a Spirituââ¦ll Common-wealth command a Temporall one to change the administration of their Government and may depose Princes and institute others when they cannot otherwise defend the Spirituall Good That a Common-wealth to defend it selfe against injuries may lawfully doe all that he hath here said is very true and hath already in that which hath gone before been sufficiently demonstrated And if it were also true that there is now in this world a Spirituall Common-wealth distinct from a Civill Common-wealth then might the Prince thereof upon injury done him or upon want of caution that injury be not done him in time to come repaire and secure himself by Warre which is in summe deposing killing or subduing or doing any act of Hostility But by the same reason it would be no lesse lawfull for a Civill Soveraign upon the like injuries done or feared to make warre upon the Spirituall Soveraign which I beleeve is more than Cardinall Bellarmine would have inferred from his own proposition But Spirituall Common-wealth there is none in this world for it is the same thing with the Kingdome of Christ which he himselfe saith is not of this world but shall be in the next world at the Resurrection when they that have lived justly and beleeved that he was the Christ shall though they died Naturall bodies rise Spirituall bodies and then it is that our Saviour shall judge the world and conquer his Adversaries and make a Spirituall Common-wealth In the mean time seeing there are no men on earth whose bodies are Spirituall there can be no Spirituall Common-wealth amongst men that are yet in the flesh unlesse wee call Preachers that have Commission to Teach and
prepare men for their reception into the Kingdome of Christ at the Resurrection a Common-wealth which I have proved already to bee none The third Argument is this It is not lawfull for Christians to tolerate an Infidel or Haereticall King in case he endeavour to draw them to his Haeresie or Infidelity But to judge whether a King draw his subjects to Haeresie or not belongeth to the Pope Therefore hath the Pope Right to determine whether the Prince be to be deposed or not deposed To this I answer that both these assertions are false For Christians or men of what Religion soever if they tolerate not their King whatsoever law hee maketh though it bee concerning Religion doe violate their faith contrary to the Divine Law both Naturall and Positive Nor is there any Judge of Haeresie amongst Subjects but their owne Civill Soveraign For Haeresie is nothing else but a private opinion obstinately maintained contrary to the opinion which the Publique Person that is to say the Representant of the Common-wealth hath commanded to bee taught By which it is manifest that an opinion publiquely appointed to bee taught cannot be Haeresie nor the Soveraign Princes that authorize them Haeretiques For Haeretiques are none but private men that stubbornly defend some Doctrine prohibited by their lawfull Soveraigns But to prove that Christians are not to tolerate Infidell or Haereticall Kings he alledgeth a place in Deut. 17. where God forbiddeth the Jews when they shall set a King over themselves to choose a stranger And from thence inferreth that it is unlawfull for a Christian to choose a King that is not a Christian. And 't is true that he that is a Christian that is hee that hath already obliged himself to receive our Saviour when he shall come for his King shal tempt God too much in choosing for King in this world one that hee knoweth will endeavour both by terrour and perswasion to make him violate his faith But it is saith hee the same danger to choose one that is not a Christian for King and not to depose him when hee is chosen To this I say the question is not of the danger of not deposing but of the Justice of deposing him To choose him may in some cases bee unjust but to depose him when he is chosen is in no case Just. For it is alwaies violation of faith and consequently against the Law of Nature which is the eternall Law of God Nor doe wee read that any such Doctrine was accounted Christian in the time of the Apostles nor in the time of the Romane Emperours till the Popes had the Civill Soveraignty of Rome But to this he hath replyed that the Christians of old deposed not Nero nor Dioclesian nor Iulian nor Valens an Arrian for this cause onely that they wanted Temporall forces Perhaps so But did our Saviour who for calling for might have had twelve Legions of immortall invulnerable Angels to assist him want forces to depose Caesar or at least Pilate that unjustly without finding fault in him delivered him to the Jews to bee crucified Or if the Apostles wanted Temporall forces to depose Nero was it therefore necessary for them in their Epistles to the new made Christians to teach them as they did to obey the Powers constituted over them whereof Nero in that time was one and that they ought to obey them not for fear of their wrath but for conscience sake Shall we say they did not onely obey but also teach what they meant not for want of strength It is not therefore for want of strength but for conscience sake that Christians are to tolerate their Heathen Princes or Princes for I cannot call any one whose Doctrine is the Publique Doctrine an Haeretique that authorize the teaching of an Errour And whereas for the Temporall Power of the Pope he alledgeth further that St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. appointed Judges under the Heathen Princes of those times such as were not ordained by those Princes it is not true For St. Paul does but advise them to take some of their Brethren to compound their differences as Arbitrators rather than to goe to law one with another before the Heathen Judges which is a wholsome Precept and full of Charity fit to bee practised also in the best Christian Common-wealths And for the danger that may arise to Religion by the Subjects tolerating of an Heathen or an Erring Prince it is a point of which a Subject is no competent Judgâ⦠or if hee bee the Popes Temporall Subjects may judge also of the Popes Doctrine For every Christian Prince as I have formerly proyed is no lesse Supreme Pastor of his own Subjects than the Pope of his The fourth Argument is taken from the Baptisme of Kings wherein that they may be made Christians they submit their Scepters to Christ and promise to keep and defend the Christian Faith This is true for Christian Kings are no more but Christs Subjects but they may for all that bee the Popes Fellowes for they are Supreme Pastors of their own Subjects and the Pope is no more but King and Pastor even in Rome it selfe The fifth Argument is drawn from the words spoken by our Saviour Feed my sheep by which was given all Power necessary for a Pastor as the Power to chase away Wolves such as are Haeretiques the Power to shut up Rammes if they be mad or push at the other Sheep with their Hornes such as are Evill though Christian Kings and Power to give the Flock convenient food From whence hee inferreth that St. Peter had these three Powers given him by Christ. To which I answer that the last of these Powers is no more than the Power or rather Command to Teach For the first which is to chase away Wolves that is Haeretiques the place hee quoteth is Matth. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets which come to you in Sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravening Wolves But neither are Haeretiques false Prophets or at all Prophets nor admitting Haeretiques for the Wolves there meant were the Apostles commanded to kill them or if they were Kings to depose them but to beware of fly and avoid them nor was it to St. Peter nor to any of the Apostles but to the multitude of the Jews that followed him into the mountain men for the most part not yet converted that hee gave this Counsell to Beware of false Prophets which therefore if it conferre a Power of chasing away Kings was given not onely to private men but to men that were not at all Christians And as to the Power of Separating and Shutting up of furious Rammes by which hee meaneth Christian Kings that refuse to submit themselves to the Roman Pastor our Saviour refused to take upon him that Power in this world himself but advised to let the Corn and Tares grow up together till the day of Judgment much lesse did hee give it to St. Peter or can S. Peter give it to the Popes St. Peter and all
other Pastors are bidden to esteem those Christians that disobey the Church that is that disobey the Christian Soveraigne as Heathen men and as Publicans Seeing then men challenge to the Pope no authority over Heathen Princes they ought to challenge none over those that are to bee esteemed as Heathen But from the Power to Teach onely hee inferreth also a Coercive Power in the Pope over Kings The Pastor saith he must give his flock convenient food Therefore the Pope may and ought to compell Kings to doe their duty Out of which it followeth that the Pope as Pastor of Christian men is King of Kings which all Christian Kings ought indeed either to Confesse or else they ought to take upon themselves the Supreme Pastorall Charge every one in his own Dominion His sixth and last Argument is from Examples To which I answer first that Examples prove nothing Secondly that the Examples he alledgeth make not so much as a probability of Right The fact of Jehoiada in Killing Athaliah 2 Kings 11. was either by the Authority of King Joash or it was a horrible Crime in the High Priest which ever after the election of King Saul was a mere Subject The fact of St. Ambrose in Excommunicating Theodosius the Emperour if it were true hee did so was a Capitall Crime And for the Popes Gregory 1. Greg. 2. Zachary and Leo 3. their Judgments are void as given in their own Cause and the Acts done by them conformably to this Doctrine are the greatest Crimes especially that of Zachary that are incident to Humane Nature And thus much of Power Ecclesiasticall wherein I had been more briefe forbearing to examine these Arguments of Bellarmine if they had been his as a Private man and not as the Champion of the Papacy against all other Christian Princes and States CHAP. XLIII Of what is NECESSARY for a Mans Reception into the Kingdome of Heaven THe most frequent praetext of Sedition and Civill Warre in Christian Common-wealths hath a long time proceeded from a difficulty not yet sufficiently resolved of obeying at once both God and Man then when their Commandements are one contrary to the other It is manifest enough that when a man receiveth two contrary Commands and knows that one of them is Gods he ought to obey that and not the other though it be the command even of his lawfull Soveraign whether a Monarch or or a soveraign Assembly or the command of his Father The difficulty therefore consisteth in this that men when they are commanded in the name of God know not in divers Cases whether the command be from God or whether he that commandeth doe but abuse Gods name for some private ends of his own For as there were in the Church of the Jews many false Prophets that sought reputation with the people by feigned Dreams and Visions so there have been in all times in the Church of Christ false Teachers that seek reputation with the people by phantasticall and false Doctrines and by such reputation as is the nature of Ambition to govern them for their private benefit But this difficulty of obeying both God and the Civill Soveraign on earth to those that can distinguish between what is Necessary and what is not Necessary for their Reception into the Kingdome of God is of no moment For if the command of the Civill Soveraign bee such as that it may be obeyed without the forfeiture of life Eternall not to obey it is unjust and the precept of the Apostle takes place Servants obey your Masters in all things and Children obey your Parents in all things and the precept of our Saviour The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chaire All therefore they shall say that observe and doe But if the command be such as cannot be obeyed without being damned to Eternall Death then it were madnesse to obey it and the Counsell of our Saviour takes place Mat. 10. 28. Fear not those that kill the body but cannot kill the soule All men therefore that would avoid both the punishments that are to be in this world inflicted for disobedience to their earthly Soveraign and those that shall be inflicted in the world to come for disobedience to God have need be taught to distinguish well between what is and what is not Necessary to Eternall Salvation All that is NECESSARY to Salvatian is contained in two Vertues Faith in Christ and Obedience to Laws The latter of these if it were perfect were enough to us But because wee are all guilty of disobedience to Gods Law not onely originally in Adam but also actually by our own transgressions there is required at our hands now not onely Obedience for the rest of our time but also a Remission of sins for the time past which Remission is the reward of our Faith in Christ. That nothing else is Necessarily required to Salvation is manifest from this that the Kingdome of Heaven is shut to none but to Sinners that is to say to the disobedient or transgressors of the Law nor to them in case they Repent and Beleeve all the Articles of Christian Faith Necessary to Salvation The Obedience required at our hands by God that accepteth in all our actions the Will for the Deed is a serious Endeavour to Obey him and is called also by all such names as signifie that Endeavour And therefore Obedience is sometimes called by the names of Charity and Love because they imply a Will to Obey and our Saviour himself maketh our Love to God and to one another a Fulfilling of the whole Law and sometimes by the name of Righteousnesse for Righteousnesse is but the will to give to every one his owne that is to say the will to obey the Laws and sometimes by the name of Repentance because to Repent implyeth a turning away from finne which is the same with the return of the will to Obedience Whosoever therefore unfeignedly desireth to fulfill the Commandements of God or repenteth him truely of his transgressions or that loveth God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself hath all the Obedience Necessary to his Reception into the Kingdom of God For if God should require perfect Innocence there could no flesh be saved But what Commandements are those that God hath given us Are all those Laws which were given to the Jews by the hand of Moses the Commandements of God If they bee why are not Christians taught to Obey them If they be not what others are so besides the Law of Nature For our Saviour Christ hath not given us new Laws but Counsell to observe those wee are subject to that is to say the Laws of Nature and the Laws of our severall Soveraigns Nor did he make any new Law to the Jews in his Sermon on the Mouut but onely expounded the Laws of Moses to which they were subject before The Laws of God therefore are none but the Laws of Nature whereof the principall is that we
Adultery Doe not Kill Doe not Steal Doe not bear false witnesse Honor thy Father and thy Mother which when he said he had observed our Saviour added Sell all thou hast give it to the Poor and come and follow me which was as much as to say Relye on me that am the King Therefore to fulfill the Law and to beleeve that Jesus is the King is all that is required to bring a man to eternall life Thirdly St. Paul saith Rom. 1. 17. The Just shall live by Faith not every one but the Just therefore Faith and Justice that is the will to be Just or Repentance are all that is Necessary to life eternall And Mark 1. 15. our Saviour preached saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent and Beleeve the Evangile that is the Good news that the Christ was come Therefore to Repent and to Beleeve that Jesus is the Christ is all that is required to Salvation Seeing then it is Necessary that Faith and Obedience implyed in the word Repentance do both concurre to our Salvation the question by which of the two we are Justified is impertinently disputed Neverthelesse it will not be impertinent to make manifest in what manner each of them contributes thereunto and in what sense it is said that we are to be Justified by the one and by the other And first if by Righteousnesse be understood the Justice of the Works themselves there is no man that can be saved for there is none that hath not transgressed the Law of God And therefore when wee are said to be Justified by Works it is to be understood of the Will which God doth alwaies accept for the Work it selfe as well in good as in evill men And in this sense onely it is that a man is callod Iust or Vnjust and that his Justice Justifies him that is gives him the title in Gods acceptation of Just and renders him capable of living by his Faith which before he was not So that Justice Justifies in that sense in which to Justifie is the same that to Denominate a man Iust and not in the signification of discharging the Law whereby the punishment of his sins should be unjust But a man is then also said to be Justified when his Plea though in it selfe unsufficient is accepted as when we Plead our Will our Endeavour to fulfill the Law and Repent us of our failings and God accepteth it for the Performance it selfe And because God accepteth not the Will for the Deed but onely in the Faithfull it is therefore Faith that makes good our Plea and in this sense it is that Faith onely Justifies So that Faith and Obedience are both Necessary to Salvation yet in severall senses each of them is said to Justifie Having thus shewn what is Necessary to Salvation it is not hard to reconcile our Obedience to God with our Obedience to the Civill Soveraign who is either Christian or Infidel If he bee a Christian he alloweth the beleefe of this Article that Iesus is the Christ and of all the Articles that are contained in or are by evident consequence deduced from it which is all the Faith Necessary to Salvation And because he is a Soveraign he requireth Obedience to all his owne that is to all the Civill Laws in which also are contained all the Laws of Nature that is all the Laws of God for besides the Laws of Nature and the Laws of the Church which are part of the Civill Law for the Church that can make Laws is the Common-wealth there bee no other Laws Divine Whosoever therefore obeyeth his Christian Soveraign is not thereby hindred neither from beleeving nor from obeying God But suppose that a Christian King should from this Foundation Iesus is the Christ draw some false consequences that is to say make some superstructions of Hay or Stubble and command the teaching of the same yet seeing St. Paul says he shal be saved much more shall he be saved that teacheth them by his command and much more yet he that teaches not but onely beleeves his lawfull Teacher And in case a Subject be forbidden by the Civill Soveraign to professe some of those his opinions upon what just ground can he disobey Christian Kings may erre in deducing a Consequence but who shall Judge Shall a private man Judge when the question is of his own obedience or shall any man Judg but he that is appointed thereto by the Church that is by the Civill Soveraign that representeth it or if the Pope or an Apostle Judge may he not erre in deducing of a consequence did not one of the two St. Peter or St. Paul erre in a superstructure when St. Paul withstood St. Peter to his face There can therefore be no contradiction between the Laws of God and the Laws of a Christian Common-wealth And when the Civill Soveraign is an Infidel every one of his own Subjects that resisteth him sinneth against the Laws of God for such as are the Laws of Nature and rejecteth the counsell of the Apostles that admonisheth all Christians to obey their Princes and all Children and Servants to obey their Parents and Masters in all things And for their Faith it is internall and invisible They have the licence that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it But if they do they ought to expect their reward in Heaven and not complain of their Lawfull Soveraign much lesse make warre upon him For he that is not glad of any just occasion of Martyrdome has not the faith he professeth but pretends it onely to set some colour upon his own contumacy But what Infidel King is so unreasonable as knowing he has a Subject that waiteth for the second comming of Christ after the present world shall bee burnt and intendeth then to obey him which is the intent of beleeving that Iesus is the Christ and in the mean time thinketh himself bound to obey the Laws of that Infidel King which all Christians are obliged in conscience to doe to put to death or to persecute such a Subject And thus much shall suffice concerning the Kingdome of God and Policy Ecclesiasticall Wherein I pretend not to advance any Position of my own but onely to shew what are the Consequences that seem to me deducible from the Principles of Christian Politiques which are the holy Scriptures in confirmation of the Power of Civill Soveraigns and the Duty of their Subjects And in the allegation of Scripture I have endeavoured to avoid such texts as are of obscure or controverted Interpretation and to alledge none but in such sense as is most plain and agreeable to the harmony and scope of the whole Bible which was written for the re-establishment of the Kingdome of God in Christ. For it is not the bare Words but the Scope of the writer that giveth the true light by which any writing is to bee interpreted and they that insist upon
end to bee able to produce as far as matter and humane force permit such Effects as ââ¦umane life requireth So the Geometrician from the Construction of Figures findeth out many Properties thereof and from the Properties new Ways of their Construction by Reasoning to the end to be able to measure Land and Water and for infinite other uses So the Astronomer from the Rising Setting and Moving of the Sun and Starres in divers parts of the Heavens findeth out the Causes of Day and Night and of the different Seasons of the Year whereby he keepeth an account of Time And the like of other Sciences By which Definition it is evident that we are not to account as any part thereof that originall knowledge called Experience in which consisteth Prudence Because it is not attained by Reasoning but found as well in Brute Beasts as in Man and is but a Memory of successions of events in times past wherein the omission of every little circumstance altering the effect frustrateth the expectation of the most Prudent whereas nothing is produced by Reasoning aright but generall eternall and immutable Truth Nor are we therefore to give that name to any false Conclusions For he that Reasoneth aright in words he understandeth can never conclude an Error Nor to that which any man knows by supernaturall Revelation because it is not acquired by Reasoning Nor that which is gotten by Reasoning from the Authority of Books because it is not by Reasoning from the Cause to the Effect nor from the Effect to the Cause and is not Knowledg but Faith The faculty of Reasoning being consequent to the use of Speech it was not possible but that there should have been some generall Truthes found out by Reasoning as ancient almost as Language it selfe The Savages of America are not without some good Morall Sentences also they have a little Arithmetick to adde and divide in Numbers not too great but they are not therefore Philosophers For as there were Plants of Corn and Wine in small quantity dispersed in the Fields and Woods before men knew their vertue or made use of them for their nourishment or planted them apart in Fields and Vineyards in which time they fed on Akorns and drank Water so also there have been divers true generall and profitable Speculations from the beginning as being the naturall plants of humane Reason But they were at first but few in number men lived upon grosse Experience there was no Method that is to say no Sowing nor Planting of Knowledge by it self apart from the Weeds and common Plants of Errour and Conjecture And the cause of it being the want of leasure from procuring the necessities of life and defending themselves against their neighbors it was impossible till the erecting of great Common-wealths it should be otherwise Leasure is the mother of Philosophy and Common-wealth the mother of Peace and Leasure Where first were great and flourishing Cities there was first the study of Philosophy The Gymnosophists of India the Magi of Persia and the Priests of Chaldaea and Egypt are counted the most ancient Philosophers and those Countreys were the most ancient of Kingdomes Philosophy was not risen to the Graecians and other people of the West whose Common-wealths no greater perhaps then Lucca or Geneva had never Peace but when their fears of one another were equall nor the Leasure to observe any thing but one another At length when Warre had united many of these Graecian lesser Cities into fewer and greater then began Seven men of severall parts of Greece to get the reputation of being Wise some of them for Morall and Politique Sentences and others for the learning of the Chaldaeans and Egyptians which was Astronomy and Geometry But we hear not yet of any Schools of Philosophy After the Athenians by the overthrow of the Persian Armies had gotten the Dominion of the Sea and thereby of all the Islands and Maritime Cities of the Archipelago as well of Asia as Europe and were grown wealthy they that had no employment neither at home nor abroad had little else to employ themselves in but either as St. Luke says Acts 17. 21. in telling and hearing news or in discoursing of Philosophy publiquely to the youth of the City Every Master took some place for that purpose Plato in certain publique Walks called Academia from one Acââ¦demus Aristotle in the Walk of the Temple of Pan called Lycaeum others in the Stoa or covered Walk wherein the Merchants Goods were brought to land others in other places where they spent the time of their Leasure in teaching or in disputing of their Opinions and some in any place where they could get the youth of the City together to hear them talk And this was it which Carneades also did at Rome when he was Ambassadour which caused Cato to advise the Senate to dispatch him quickly for feare of corrupting the manners of the young men that delighted to hear him speak as they thought fine things From this it was that the place where any of them taught and disputed was called Schola which in their Tongue signifieth Leasure and their Disputations Diatribae that is to say Passing of the time Also the Philosophers themselves had the name of their Sects some of them from these their Schools For they that followed ãâã Doctrine were called Academiques The followers of Aristotle Peripatetiques from the Walk hee taught in and those that Zeno taught Stoiques from the Stoa as if we should denominate men from More-fields from Pauls-Church and from the Exchange because they meet there often to prate and loyter Neverthelesse men were so much taken with this custome that in time it spread it selfe over all Europe and the best part of Afrique so as there were Schools publiquely erected and maintained for Lectures and Disputations almost in every Common-wealth There were also Schools anciently both before and after the time of our Saviour amongst the Iews but they were Schools of their Law For though they were called Synagogues that is to say Congregations of the People yet in as much as the Law was every Sabbath day read expounded and disputed in them they differed not in nature but in name onely from Publique Schools and were not onely in Jerusalem but in every City of the Gentiles where the Jews inhabited There was such a Schoole at Damascus whereinto Paul entred to persecute There were others at Antioch Iconium and Thessalonica whereinto he entred to dispute And such was the Synagogue of the Libertines Cyrenââ¦ans Alexandrians Cilicians and those of Asia that is to say the Schoole of Libertines and of Iewes that were strangers in Ierusalem And of this Schoole they were that disputed Act. 6. 9. with Saint Steven But what has been the Utility of those Schools what Science is there at this day acquired by their Readings and Disputings That wee have of Geometry which is the Mother of all Naturall Science wee are not indebted for
the Law which is the Will and Appetite of the State is the measure And yet is this Doctrine still practised and men judge the Goodnesse or Wickednesse of their own and of other mens actions and of the actions of the Common-wealth it selfe by their own Passions and no man calleth Good or Evill but that which is so in his own eyes without any regard at all to the Publique Laws except onely Monks and Friers that are bound by Vow to that simple obedience to their Superiour to which every Subject ought to think himself bound by the Law of Nature to the Civill Soveraign And this private measure of Good is a Doctrine not onely Vain but also Pernicious to the Publique State It is also Vain and false Philosophy to say the work of Marriage is repugnant to Chastity or Continence and by consequence to make them Morall Vices as they doe that pretend Chastity and Continence for the ground of denying Marriage to the Clergy For they confesse it is no more but a Constitution of the Church that requireth in those holy Orders that continually attend the Altar and administration of the Eucharist a continuall Abstinence from women under the name of continuall Chastity Continence and Purity Therefore they call the lawfull use of Wives want of Chastity and Continence and so make Marriage a Sin or at least a thing so impure and unclean as to render a man unfit for the Altar If the Law were made because the use of Wives is Incontinence and contrary to Chastity then all Marriage is vice If because it is a thing too impure and unclean for a man consecrated to God much more should other naturall necessary and daily works which all men doe render men unworthy to bee Priests because they are more unclean But the secret foundation of this prohibition of Marriage of Priests is not likely to have been laid so slightly as upon such errours in Morall Philosophy nor yet upon the preference of single life to the estate of Matrimony which proceeded from the wisdome of St. Paul who perceived how inconvenient a thing it was for those that in those times of persecution were Preachers of the Gospel and forced to fly from one countrey to another to be clogged with the care of wife and children but upon the designe of the Popes and Priests of after times to make themselves the Clergy that is to say sole Heirs of the Kingdome of God in this world to which it was necessary to take from them the use of Marriage because our Saviour saith that at the coming of his Kingdome the Children of God shall neither Marry nor bee given in Marriage but shall bee as the Angels in heaven that is to say Spirituall Seeing then they had taken on them the name of Spirituall to have allowed themselves when there was no need the propriety of Wives had been an Incongruity From Aristotles Civill Philosophy they have learned to call all manner of Common-wealths but the Popular such as was at that time the state of Athens Tyranny All Kings they called Tyrants and the Aristocracy of the thirty Governours ââ¦et up there by the Lacedemonians that subdued them the thirty Tyrants As also to call the condition of the people under the Democracy Liberty A Tyrant originally signified no more simply but a Monarch But when afterwards in most parts of Greece that kind of government was abolished the name began to signifie not onely the thing it did before but with it the hatred which the Popular States bare towards it As also the name of King became odious after the deposing of the Kings in Rome as being a thing naturall to all men to conceive some great Fault to be signified in any Attribute that is given in despight and to a great Enemy And when the same men shall be displeased with those that have the administration of the Democracy or Aristocracy they are not to seek for disgracefull names to expresse their anger in but call readily the one Anarchy and the other Oligarchy or the Tyranny of a Few And that which offendeth the People is no other thing but that they are governed not as every one of them would himselfe but as the Publique Representant be it one Man or an Assembly of men thinks fit that is by an Arbitrary government for which they give evill names to their Superiors never knowing till perhaps a little after a Civill warre that without such Arbitrary government such Warre must be perpetuall and that it is Men and Arms not Words and Promises that make the Force and Power of the Laws And therefore this is another Errour of Aristotles Politiques that in a wel ordered Common-wealth not Men should govern but the Laws What man that has his naturall Senses though he can neither write nor read does not find himself governed by them he fears and beleeves can kill or hurt him when he obeyeth not or that beleeves the Law can hurt him that is Words and Paper without the Hands and Swords of men And this is of the number of pernicious Errors for they induce men as oft as they like not their Governours to adhaere to those that call them Tyrants and to think it lawfull to raise warre against them And yet they are many times cherished from the Pulpit by the Clergy There is another Errour in their Civill Philosophy which they never learned of Aristotle nor Cicero nor any other of the Heathen to extend the power of the Law which is the Rule of Actions onely to the very Thoughts and Consciences of men by Examination and Inquisition of what they Hold notwithstanding the Conformity of their Speech and Actions By which men are either punished for answering the truth of their thoughts or constrained to answer an untruth for fear of punishment It is true that the Civill Magistrate intending to employ a Minister in the charge of Teaching may enquire of him if hee bee content to Preach such and such Doctrines and in case of refusall may deny him the employment But to force him to accuse himselfe of Opinions when his Actions are not by Law forbidden is against the Law of Nature and especially in them who teach that a man shall bee damned to Eternall and extream torments if he die in a false opinion concerning an Article of the Christian Faith For who is there that knowing there is so great danger in an error whom the naturall care of himself compelleth not to hazard his Soule upon his own judgement rather than that of any other man that is unconcerned in his damnation For a Private man without the Authority of the Common-wealth that is to say without permission from the Representant thereof to Interpret the Law by his own Spirit is another Error in the Politiques but not drawn from Aristotle nor from any other of the Heathen Philosophers For none of them deny but that in the Power of making Laws is comprehended
Reason and ââ¦loquence though not perhaps in the Naturall Sciences yet in the Morall may stand very well together For wheresoever there is place for adorning and preferring of Errour there is much more place for adorning and preferring of Truth if they have it to adorn Nor is there any repugnancy between fearing the Laws and not fearing a publique Enemy nor between abstaining from Injury and pardoning it in others There is therefore no such Inconsistence of Humane Nature with Civill Duties as some think I have known cleernesse of Judgment and largenesse of Fancy strength of Reason and gracefull Elocution a Courage for the Warre and a Fear for the Laws and all eminently in one man and that was my most noble and honored friend Mr. Sidney Godolphin who hating no man nor hated of any was unfortunately slain in the beginning of the late Civill warre in the Publique quarrell by an undiscerned and an undiscerning hand To the Laws of Nature declared in the 15. Chapter I would have this added That every man is bound by Nature as much as in him lieth to protect in Warre the Authority by which he is himself protected in time of Peace For he that pretendeth a Right of Nature to preserve his owne body cannot pretend a Right of Nature to destroy him by whose strength he is preserved It is a manifest contradiction of himselfe And though this Law may bee drawn by consequence from some of those that are there already mentioned yet the Times require to have it inculcated and remembred And because I find by divers English Books lately printed that the Civill warres have not yet sufficiently taught men in what point of time it is that a Subject becomes obliged to the Conquerour nor what is Conquest nor how it comes about that it obliges men to obey his Laws Therefore for farther satisfaction of men therein I say the point of time wherein a man becomes subject to a Conquerour is that point wherein having liberty to submit to him he consenteth either by expresse words or by other sufficient sign to be his Subject When it is that a man hath the liberty to submit I have shewed before in the end of the 21. Chapter namely that for him that hath no obligation to his former Soveraign but that of an ordinary Subject it is then when the means of his life is within the Guards and Garrisons of the Enemy for it is then that he hath no longer Protection from him but is protected by the adverse party for his Contribution Seeing therefore such contribution is every where as a thing inevitable notwithstanding it be an assistance to the Enemy esteemed lawfull a totall Submission which is but an assistance to the Enemy cannot be esteemed unlawful Besides if a man consider that they who submit assist the Enemy but with part of their estates whereas they that refuse assist him with the whole there is no reason to call their Submission or Composition an Assistance but rather a Detriment to the Enemy But if a man besides the obligation of a Subject hath taken upon him a new obligation of a Souldier then he hath not the liberty to submit to a new Power as long as the old one keeps the field and giveth him means of subsistence either in his Armies or Garrisons for in this case he cannot complain of want of Protection and means to live as a Souldier But when that also failes a Souldier also may seek his Protection wheresoever he has most hope to have it and may lawfully submit himself to his new Master And so much for the Time when he may do it lawfully if hee will If therefore he doe it he is undoubtedly bound to be a true Subject For a Contract lawfully made cannot lawfully be broken By this also a man may understand when it is that men may be said to be Conquered and in what the nature of Conquest and the Right of a Conquerour consisteth For this Submission is it implyeth them all Conquest is not the Victory it self but the Acquisition by Victory of a Right over the persons of men He therefore that is slain is Overcome but not Conquered He that is taken and put into prison or chaines is not Conquered though Overcome for he is still an Enemy and may save himself if hee can But he that upon promise of Obedience hath his Life and Liberty allowed him is then Conquered and a Subject and not before The Romanes used to say that their Generall had Pacified such a Province that is to say in English Conquerea it and that the Countrey was Pacified by Victory when the people of it had promised Imperata facere that is To doe what the Romane People commanded them this was to be Conquered But this promise may be either expresse or tacite Expresse by Promise Tacite by other signes As for example a man that hath not been called to make such an expresse Promise because he is one whose power perhaps is not considerable yet if he live under their Protection openly hee is understood to submit himselfe to the Government But if he live there secretly he is lyable to any thing that may bee done to a Spie and Enemy of the State I say not hee does any Injustice for acts of open Hostility bear not that name but that he may be justly put to death Likewise if a man when his Country is conquered be out of it he is not Conquered nor Subject but if at his return he submit to the Government he is bound to obey it So that Conquest to define it is the Acquiring of the Right of Soveraignty by Victory Which Right is acquired in the peoples Submission by which they contract with the Victor promising Obedience for Life and Liberty In the 29. Chapter I have set down for one of the causes of the Dissolutions of Common-wealths their Imperfect Generation consisting in the want of an Absolute and Arbitrary Legislative Power for want whereof the Civill Soveraign is fain to handle the Sword of Justice unconstantly and as if it were too hot for him to hold One reason whereof which I have not there mentioned is this That they will all of them justifie the War by which their Power was at first gotten and whereon as they think their Right dependeth and not on the Possession As if for example the Right of the Kings of England did depend on the goodnesse of the cause of William the Conquerour and upon their lineall and directest Descent from him by which means there would perhaps be no tie of the Subjects obedience to their Soveraign at this day in all the world wherein whilest they needlessely think to justifie themselves they justifie all the successefull Rebellions that Ambition shall at any time raise against them and their Successors Therefore I put down for one of the most effectuall seeds of the Death of any State that the Conquerors require not onely a Submission of mens actions to them
of Soveraigns and both the Duty and Liberty of Subjects upon the known naturall Inclinations of Mankind and upon the Articles of the Law of Nature of which no man that pretends but reason enough to govern his private family ought to be ignorant And for the Power Ecclesiasticall of the same Soveraigns I ground it on such Texts as are both evident in themselves and consonant to the Scope of the whole Scripture And therefore am perswaded that he that shall read it with a purpose onely to be informed shall be informed by it But for those that by Writing or Publique Discourse or by their eminent actions have already engaged themselves to the maintaining of contrary opinions they will not bee so easily satisfied For in such cases it is naturall for men at one and the same time both to proceed in reading and to lose their attention in the search of objections to that they had read before Of which in a time wherein the interests of men are changed seeing much of that Doctrine which serveth to the establishing of a new Government must needs be contrary to that which conduced to the dissolution of the old there cannot choose but be very many In that part which treateth of a Christian Common-wealth there are some new Doctrines which it may be in a State where the contrary were already fully determined were a fault for a Subject without leave to divulge as being an usurpation of the place of a Teacher But in this time that men call not onely for Peace but also for Truth to offer such Doctrines as I think True and that manifestly tend to Peace and Loyalty to the consideration of those that are yet in deliberation is no more but to offer New Wine to bee put into New Cask that both may be preserved together And I suppose that then when Novelty can breed no trouble nor disorder in a State men are not generally so much inclined to the reverence of Antiquity as to preferre Ancient Errors before New and well proved Truth There is nothing I distrust more than my Elocution which neverthelesse I am confident excepting the Mischances of the Presse is not obscure That I have neglected the Ornament of quoting ancient Poets Orators and Philosophers contrary to the custome of late time whether I have done well or ill in it proceedeth from my judgment grounded on many reasons For first all Truth of Doctrine dependeth either upon Reason or upon Scripture both which give credit to many but never receive it from any Writer Secondly the matters in question are not of Fact but of Right wherein there is no place for Witnesses There is scarce any of those old Writers that contradicteth not sometimes both himself and others which makes their Testimonies insufficient Fourthly such Opinions as are taken onely upon Credit of Antiquity are not intrinââ¦ecally the Judgment of those that cite them but Words that passe like gaping from mouth to mouth Fiftly it is many times with a fraudulent Designe that men stick their corrupt Doctrine with the Cloves of other mens Wit Sixtly I find not that the Ancients they cite took it for an Ornament to doe the like with those that wrote before them Seventhly it is an argument of Indigestion when Greek and Latine Sentences unchewed come up again as they use to doe unchanged Lastly though I reverence those men of Ancient time that either have written Truth perspicuously or set us in a better way to find it out our selves yet to the Antiquity it self I think nothing due For if we will reverence the Age the Present is the Oldest If the Antiquity of the Writer I am not sure that generally they to whom such honor is given were more Ancient when they wrote than I am that am Writing But if it bee well considered the praise of Ancient Authors proceeds not from the reverence of the Dead but from the competition and mutuall envy of the Living To conclude there is nothing in this whole Discourse nor in that I writ before of the same Subject in Latine as far as I can perceive contrary either to the Word of God or to good Manners or to the disturbance of the Publique Tranquillity Therefore I think it may be profitably printed and more profitably taught in the Universities in case they also think so to whom the judgment of the same belongeth For seeing the Universities are the Fountains of Civill and Morall Doctrine from whence the Preachers and the Gentry drawing such water as they find use to sprinkle the same both from the Pulpit and in their Conversation upon the People there ought certainly to be great care taken to have it pure both from the Venime of Heathen Politicians and from the Incantation of Deceiving Spirits And by that means the most men knowing their Duties will be the less subject to serve the Ambition of a few discoÌtented persons in their purposes against the State and be the lesse grieved with the Contributions necessary for their Peace and Defence and the Governours themselves have the lesse cause to maintain at the Common charge any greater Army than is necessary to make good the Publique Liberty against the Invasions and Encroachments of forraign Enemies And thus I have brought to an end my Discourse of Civill and Ecclesiasticall Government occasioned by the disorders of the present time without partiality without application and without other designe than to set before mens eyes the mutuall Relation between Protection and Obedience of which the condition of Humane Nature and the Laws Divine both Naturall and Positive require an inviolable observation And though in the revolution of States there can be no very good Constellation for Truths of this nature to be born under as having an angry aspect from the dissolvers of an old Government and seeing but the backs of them that erect a new yet I cannot think it will be condemned at this time either by the Publique Judge of Doctrine or by any that desires the continuââ¦nce of Publique Peace And in this hope I return to my interrupted Speculation of Bodies Naturall wherein if God give me health to finish it I hope the Novelty will as much please as in the Doctrine of this Artificiall Body it useth to offend For such Truth as opposeth no mans profit nor pleasure is to all men welcome FINIS Memory Dreams Apparitions or Visions Understanding Trayne of Thoughts unguided Trayne of Thoughts regulated Remembrance Prudence Signes Conââ¦ecture of the time past Originall of Speech The use of Speech Abuses of Speech Names Proper Common Universall Necessity of Dââ¦ons Subject to Names Use of Names Positive Negative Names with their Vses Words insignificant Understanding Inconstant names Reason what it is Reason defined Right Reason where The use of Reason Of Error and Absurdity Causes of absurditie 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Science Prudence Sapience with their difference Signes of Science Motion Vitall and Animal Endeavour Appetite Desire Hunger
Thirst. Aversion Love Hate Contempt Good Evill Pulchrum Turpe Delightfull Profitable ãâã Unprofitable Delight Displeasure Pleasure Offence Pleasures of sense Pleasures of the Mind Joy Paine Griefe Hope Despaire Feare Courage Anger Confidence Diffidââ¦nce Indignation Benevolence Good Nature Covetousnesse Ambition Pusillanimity Magnanimity Valour Liberality Miserablenesse Kindnesse Naturall Lust. Luxury The passion of Love Jealousie Revengefulnesse Curiosity Religion Superstition True Religion Panique Terrour Admiration Glory Vain-glory. Dejection Sudden Glory Laughter Sudden Dejection Weeping Shame Blushing Impudence Pitty Cruelty Emulation Envy Deliberation The Will Formes of Speech in Passion Good and Evill apparent Felicity Praise Magnification ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Judgement or Sentence ââ¦inal Doubt Science Opinioâ⦠Consciââ¦ce Beliefe Faith Intellectuall Vertue defined Wit Naturall or Acquired Naturall Wit Good Wit or Fancy Good Judgement Discretion Prudence Craft Acquired Wit Giddinesse Madnesse Rage Melancholy Insignificant Speech Power Worth Dignity To Honour and Dishonour Honourable Dishonourable Coats of Armes Titles of Honour Worthinesse Fitnesse What is here meant by Manners A restlesse desire of Power in all men Love of Contention from Competition Civil obedience from love of Ease From feare of Death or Wounds And from love of Arts. Love of Vertue from love Praise Hate from difficulty of Requiting great Benefits And from Conscience of deserving to ãâã ãâã Promptnesse to hurt from Fear And from distrufl of their own wit Vain undertaking from Vain-glory. Ambition from opinion of sufficiency Irresolution from too great valuing of small matters Conââ¦idence in others ââ¦rom Ignorance of the marks of Wisdome and Kindnesse And from Ignorance of naturall causes And from want of Understanding Adhaerence to Custome from Ignorance of the nature of Right and Wrong Adhaerence to private men From ignorance of the Causes of Peace Credulity from Ignorance of nature Curiosity to know from Care of future time Naturall Re ligion from the same Religion in Man onely First from his desire of knowing Causes From the consideration of the Begining of thingâ⦠From his observation of the Sequell of things The naturall Cause of Religion the Anxiety of the time to come Which makes them fear the Power of Inuisible things And suppose them Incorporeall But know not the way how they effect any thing But honour them as they honour mââ¦n And attribute to them all extraordinary events Foure things Naturall seeds of Religion Mide different by Culture The absurd opinion of Gentilisme The designes of the Authors of the Religion of the Heathen The true Religion and the lawes of Gods kingdome the same Chap. 35. The causes of Change in Religion Injoyning beleefe of Impossibilities Doing contrary to the Religion they establish Want of the testimony of Miracles * Exod. 32. 1 2. * Judges 2. 11. * 1 Sam. 8. 3. Men by nature Equall From Equââ¦lity proceââ¦ds Diââ¦idence From Diffidence Warre Out of Civil States there is alwayes Warre of every one against every one The Incommodities of such a War In such a Warre nothing is Unjust The Passions that incline men to Peace Right of Nature what Liberty what A Law of Nature what Difference of Right and Law Naturally every man has Right to everything The Fundamentall Law of Nature The seoond Law of Nature What it is to lay down a Right Renouncing a Right what it is Transferring Right what Obligation Duty Injustice Not all Rights are alienable Contract what Covenant what Free-gift Signes of Contract Expresse Signes of Contract by Inference Free gift passeth by words of the Present or Past. Signes of Contract are words both of the Past Present and Future Merit what Covenants of Mutuall trust when Invalid Right to the End Containeth Right to the Means No Covenant with Beasts Nor with God witââ¦out speciall Revelation No Covenant but of Possible and Future Covenants how made voyd Covenants extorted by feare are valide The former Covenant to one makes voyd the later to another A mans Covenant not to defend himselfe is voyd No man obliged to accuse himself The End of an Oath The forme of an Oath No Oath but by God An Oath addes nothing to the Obligation The third Law of Nature Justice Justice and Jnjustice what Justice and Propriety begin with the Constitution of Common-wealth Justice not Contrary to Reason Covenants not discharged by the Vice of the Person to whom they are made Justice of Men Iustice of Actions what Iustice of Manners and Iustice of Actions Nothing done to a man by his own consent can be Injury Justice Commutative and Distributive The fourth Law of Nature Gratitude The fifth Mutuall accommodetion or Compleasance The sixth Facility to Pardon The seventh that in Revenges men respect onely the future good The eighth against Contumely The ninth against ãâã The tenth against Arrogance The elevââ¦nth Equity The twelfth Equall use of things Common The thirteenth of Lot The fourteenth of Primogeniture and First seising The ââ¦fteenth of Mediators The sixteenth of Submission to Arbitrement The seventeenth No man is his own Judge The eighteenth no man to be Judge that has in him a natural cause of Partiality The nineteenth of Witnesses A Rule by which the Laws of Nââ¦ture may eââ¦sily be examined The Lawes of Nature oblige inConscience alwayes but in Effect then onely when there is Security The Laws of Nature are Eternal And yet Easie The Science of these Lawes is the true Morall Philosophy A Person what Person Naturall and Artificiall The word Person whence Actor Author Authority Covenants by Authority bind the Author But not the Actor The Authority is to be shewne Things personated Inanimate Irrational False Gods The true God A Multitude of men how one Person Every one is Author An Actor may be Many men made One by Plurââ¦lity of Voyâ⦠Representatives when the number is even unprofitable Negativâ⦠voyce The End of Commonweââ¦th particular Security Chap. 13. Which is not to be had from the Law of Nature Nor from the conjunction of a few men or familyes Nor from a great Multitude unlesse directed by one judgement And that continually Why certain creatures without reason or speech do neverthelesse live in Society without any cââ¦rcive Power The Generation of a Common-wealth The Definition of a Common-wealth Soveraigne and Subjeââ¦t what The act of Instituting a Common-wealth what The Consequences to such Institution are 1. The Subjects cannot change the forme of government 2. Soveraigne Power cannot be forfeited 3 No man can without injustice protest against the Institution of the Soveraigne declared by the major part 4 The Soveraigns Actions cannot be justly accused by the Subject 5. What soever the Soveraigne doth is unpunishable by the Subject 6. The Soveraigne is judge of what is necessary for the Peace and Defence of his Subjects And Iudge of what Doctrines are fit to be taught them 7 The Right of making Rules whereby the Subjects may every man know what is so his owne as no other Subject can without injustice take it from him 8 To
ââ¦im also belongeth the Right of all Judicature and decision of Controversise 9. And of making War and Peace as he shall think best 10. And of choosing all Counsellours and Ministers both of Peace and Warre 11. And of Rewarding and Punishing and that where no former Law hath determined the measure of it arbitrary 12. And of Honour and Order These Rights are indivisible And can by no Grant passe away without direct renouncing of the Soveraign Power The Power and Honour of Subjects vanisheth in the presence of the Power Soveraign Soveraigne Power not so hurtfull as the want of it and the hurt proceeds for the greatest part from not submitting readily to a lesse The different Formes of Common-wealths but three Tyranny and Oligarchy but different names of Monarchy and Aristocracy Subordinate Representatives dangerous Comparison of Monarchy with Soveraign Assemblyes Of the Right of Succession The present Monarch hath Right to dispose of the Succââ¦ssim Succession passeth by expresse Words Or by not controlling a Custome Or by presumption of naturall affecâ⦠To dispose of the Succession though to a King of another Nation not unlawfull A Common-wealth by Acquisition Wherein ãâã from a Common-wealth by Insââ¦on The Rights of Soveraignty the same in both Dominion Paternall how attained Not by Gââ¦neration but by Contract Or Education Or Precedent subjection of one of the Parents to the other The Right of Succession followeth the Rules of the Right of Possession Despoticall Dominion how attained Not by the Victory but by the Consent of the Vanquished Difference between a Family and a Kingdom The Rights of Monarchy from Scripture * Exod. 20. 19. * Exod. 20. 19. * 1 Sam. 8. 11 12 c. * Verse 10. * 1 Kings 3. 9. * 1 Sam. 24. 9. * Coll. 3. 20. * Verse 22. * Math. 23. 2 3. * Tit. 3. 2. * Mat. 21. 2 3. * Gen. 3 5. Soveraign Power ought in all Common-wealths to be absolute Liberty what What it is to be Free Feare and Liberty consistent Liberty and Necessity Consistent Artificiall Bonds or Covenants Liberty of Subjects consisteth in Liberty from covenants Liberty of the Subject consistent with the unlimited power of the Soveraign The Liberty which writers praise is the Liberty of Soveraigns not of Private men Liberty of Subjects how to be measured Subjects have Liberty to defend their own bodies even against them that lawsully invade them Are not bound to hurt themselves Nor to warfare unlesse they voluntarily undertake it The Greatest Liberty of Subjects dependeth on the Silence of the Law In what Cases Subjects are absolved of their obedience to their Soveraign In case of Captivity In case the Soveraign cast off the government from himself and his Heyrs In case of Banishment In case the Soveraign render himself Subject to another The divers sorts of Systemes of People In all Bodies Politique the power of the Representative is Limited By Letters Patents And the Lawes When the Representative is one man his unwarranted Acts are his own onely When it is an Assembly it is the act of them that assented onely When the Representative is one man if he borrow mony or owe it by Contract he is lyable onely the members not When it is an Assembly they onely are liable that have assented If the debt be to one of the Assembly the Body onely is obliged Protestation against the Decrees of Bodies Politique sometimes lawful but against Soveraign Power never Bodies Politique for Government of a Province Colony or Town Bodies Politique for ordering of Trade A Bodie Politique for Counsel to be given to the Soveraign A Regular Private Body Lawfull as a Family Private Bodies Regular but Unlawfull Systemes Irregular such as are Private Leagues Secret Cabals Feuds of private Families Factions for Government * Acts 19. 40. Publique Minister Who. Ministers for the generall Administration For speciall Administration as for Oecoââ¦my For instruction of the People For Judicature For ãâã Counsellers without other employment then to Advise are not Publique Ministers The Nourishment of a Common-wealth consisteth in the Commodities of Sea and Land And the right Distribution of them All private Estates of land proceed originally from the Arbitrary Distribution of the Soveraign Propriety of a Subject excludes not the Dominion of the Soveraign but onely of another Subject The Publique is not to be dieted The Places and matter of Traffique depend as their Distribution on the Soveraign The Laws of transferring propriety belong also ãâã the Soveraign Mony the Bloud of a Common-wealth The Conduits and Way of mony to the Publique use The Children of a Common-wealth Colonies Counsell whaâ⦠Differences between Command and Counsell Exhortation and Dehortation what Differennceâ⦠of fit and unfit Counsellours Civill Law what The Soveraign is Legistator And not Subject to Civill Law Use a Law not by vertue of Time but of the Soveraigns consent The Law of Nature and the Civill Law contain each other Provinciall Lawes are not made by Custome but by the Soveraign Power Some foolish opinions of Lawyers concerning the making of Lawes Sir Edw. Coke upon Lââ¦tleton Lib. 2. Ch. 6. ãâã 97. b. Law made ââ¦f not also made known is no Law Unwritten Lawes are all of them Lawes of Nature * Prov. 7. 3. Deut. 11. 19. * Deut. 31. 12. Nothing is Law where the Legislator cannot be known Difference between Verifying and Authorising The Law Verifyed by the subordinate Judge By the Publique Registers By Letters Patent and Publique Seale The Interpretation of the Law dependeth on the Soveraign Power All Lawâ⦠need Interpretation The Aââ¦thenticall Interpretation of Law is not that of writers The Interpreter of the Law is the Judge giving sentence vivâ voce in every particular case The Sentence of a Judge does not bind him or another Judge to give like Sentence in like Cases ever after The difference between the Letter and Sentence of the Law The abilities required in a Judge Divisions of Law Another Division of Law Divine Positive Law how made known to be Law Gen. 17. 10. Another division of Lawes A Fundamentall Law what Difference between Law and Right And between a Law and a Charter Sinne what A Crime what Where no Civill Law is there is ãâã Crime Ignorance of the Law of Nature excuseth no man Ignorance of the Civill Law excuseth sometimes Ignorance of the Soveraign excuseth not Ignorance of the Penalty excuseth not Punishments declared before the Fact excuse from greater punishments after it Nothing can be made a Crime by a Law made after the Fact False Principles of Right and Wrong causes of Crime False Teachers mis-interpreting the Law of Nature And false Inferences from true ãâã ãâã Teachers By their Passions Presumption of Riches And FrieÌds Wisedome Hatred Lust Ambition Covetousnesse causes of Crime Fear sometimes cause of Crime as when the danger is neither present nor corporeall Crimes not equall Totall Excuses Excuses against the Author Preseumption of Power aggravateth Evill Teachers Extenuate
Examples of Impunity Extenuate Praemeditation Aggravateth Tacite approbation of the Soveraign Extenuates Comparison of Crimes from their Effects Laesa Majestas Bribery and False testimony Depeculation Counterfeiting Authority Crimes against private men compared Publique Crimes what The definition of Punishment Right to Punish whence derived Private injuries and revenges no Punishments Nor denyall of preferment Nor pain inflicted without publique hearing Nor pain inflicted by Usurped power Nor pain inflicted without respect to to the future good Naturall evill consequences no Punishments Hurt inflicted if lesse than the benefit of transgressing is not Punishment Where the Punishment is annexed to the Law a greater hurt is not Punishment but ãâã Hurt inflicted for a fact done before the Law no Punishment The Representative of the Common-wealth Unpunishable Hurt to Revolted Subjects is done by right of War not by way of Punishment Punishments Corporall Capitall Ignominy Imprisonment Exile The Punishment of Innocent Subjects is contrary to the Law of Nature But the Harme done to Innocents in War not so Nor that which is done to declared Rebels Reward is either Salary or Grace Benefits bestowed for fear are not Rewards Salaries Certain and Casuall Dissolution of Common-wealths proceedeth from their Imperfect Institution Want of Absolute power Private Judgement of Good and Evill Erroneous conscience Pretence of Inspiration Subjecting the Soveraign Power to Civill Lawes Attributing of absolute Propriââ¦ty to ãâã Dividing of the Soveraign Power Imitatioâ⦠of Neighbour Natiouâ⦠Imitation of the Greââ¦ks and Romans Mixt Government Want of Mony Monopolies and abuses of Publicans Popular men Excessive greatnesse of a ââ¦own multitude of Corporations Liberty of disputing against Soveraign Power Dissolution of the Common-wealth The Procuration of the Good of the People By Instrââ¦ction Lawes Against the duty of a Soveraign to relinquish any Essentiall Right of Soveraignty Or not to seâ⦠the people taught the grounds of them Objection of those that say there are no Principles of Reason for absolute Soveraigââ¦ty Objection from the Incapacity of the vulgar Subjects are to be taught not to affect change of Government Nor adhere against the Soveraign to Popular men Nor to Dispute the Soveraign Power And to have dayes set apart to learn their Duty And to Honour their Parents And to avoyd doing of Injury And to do all this sincerely from the heart The use of Uââ¦iversities Equall ââ¦xes Publique Charity ãâã of Idlenesse Goâ⦠Laweâ⦠whââ¦t Such as are Necessary Such as are Perspicuous Punishments Rewards Counsellours Commanders The scope of the following Chapters Psal. 96 1. Psal. 98. 1. Who are subjects in the kingdome of God A Threefold Word of God Reason Revelation Prophââ¦y A twofold Kingdome of God Naturall and Prophetique The Right of Gods Soveraignty is derived from his Omnipotence Sinne not the cause of all Affliction Psal. 72. ver 1 2 3. Job 38. v. 4. Divine Lawes Honour and Worship what Severall signes of Honour Worship Naturall and Arbitrary Worship Commanded and Free Worship Publique and Private The End of Worship Attributes of Divine Honour Actions that are signes of Divine Honour Publique Worship consisteth in Uniformity All Attributes depend on the Lawes Civill Not all Actions Naturall Punishments The Conclusion of the Second Part. The Word of God delivered by Prophets is the mainprinciple of Christian Politiques Yet is not naturall Reason to be renounced What it is to captivate the Understanding How God speaketh to men By what marks Prophets are known 1 Kings 22. 1 Kings 13. Deut. 13. v. 1 2 3 4 5. Mat. 24. 24. Gal. 1. 8. The marks of a Prophet in the old law Miracles and Doctrin conformable to the law Miracles ceasing Prophets cease and the Scripture supplies their place Of the Books of Holy Scripture Their Antiquity The Pentaâ⦠not written by Moses Deut. 31. 9. Deut. 31. 26. 2 King 22. 8. 23. 1 2 3. The Book of Joshua written after his time Josh. 4. 9. Josh. 5. 9. Josh. 7. 26. The Booke of Judges and Ruth written long after the Captivity The like of the Bookes of Samuel 2 Sam. 6. 4. The Books of the Kings and the Chronicles Ezra and Nehemiah Esther Job The Psalter The Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Canticles The Prophets The New Testament Their Scope The question of the Authority of the Scriptures stated Their Authority and Interpretation Body and Spirit how taken in the Scripture The Spirit of God taken in the Scripture sometimes for a Wind or Breath Secondly for extraordinary gifts of the Vnderstanding Thirdly for extraordinary Affections Fourthly for the gift of Prediction by Dreams and Visions Fifââ¦ly for Life Sixtly for a subordination to authority Seventhly for Aeriall Bodies Angel what Inspiration what The Kingdom of God taken by Divines Metaphorically but in the Scriptures properly The originall of the Kingdome of God That the Kingdome of God is properly his Civill Soveraignty over a peculiar people by pact Holy what Sacred what Degrees of Sanctity Sacrament Word what The words spoken by God and concerning God both are called God 's Word in Scripture 1 Tim. 4. 1. The Word of God metaphorically used first for the Decrees and Power of God Secondly for the effect of his Word Acts 1. 4. Luke 24. 49. Thirdly for the words of reason and equity Divers acceptions of the word Prophet Praediction of future contingents not alwaies Prophecy The manner how God hath spoken to the Prophets To the Extraordinary Prophets of the Old Testament he spake by Dreams or Visions To Prophets of perpetuall Calling and Supreme God spake in the Old Testament from the Mercy Seat in a manner not expressed in the Scripture To Prophets of perpetuall Calling but subordinate God spake by the Spirit ââ¦od sometimes also spake by Lots Every man ought to examine the probability of a pretended Prophets Calling All prophecy but of the Soveraign Prophet is to be examined by every Subject A Miracle is a work that causeth Admiration And must therefore be rare and whereof there is no naturall cause known That which seemeth a Miracle to one man may seem otherwise to another The End of Miracles Exo. 4. 1 c. The definition of a Miracle Exod. 7. 11. Exod. 7. 22. Exod. 8. 7. That men are apt to be deceived by false Miracles Cautions against the Imposture of Miracles The place of Adams Eternity if he had not sinned had been the terrestiall Paradise Gen. 3. 22. Texts concerning the place of Life Eternall for Beleevers Ascension into heaven The place after Judgment of those who were never in the Kingdome of God ãâã having been in are cast out Tartarus The congregation of Giants Lake of Fire Vtter Darknesse Gehenna and Tophet Of the literall sense of the Scripture concerning Hell Satan Devill not Proper names but Appellatives Torments of Hell Apoc. 20. 13 14. The Joyes of Life Eternall and Salvation the same thing Salvation from Sin and from Misery all one The Place of Eternall Salvation 2 Pet. 2. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 13.
should not violate our Faith that is a commandement to obey our Civill Soveraigns which wee constituted over us by mutuall pact one with another And this Law of God that commandeth Obedience to the Law Civill commandeth by consequence Obedience to all the Precepts of the Bible which as I have proved in the precedent Chapter is there onely Law where the Civill Soveraign hath made it so and in other places but Counsell which a man at his own perill may without injustice refuse to obey Knowing now what is the Obedience Necessary to Salvation and to whom it is due we are to consider next concerning Faith whom and why we beleeve and what are the Articles or Points necessarily to be beleeved by them that shall be saved And first for the Person whom we beleeve because it is impossible to beleeve any Person before we know what he saith it is necessary he be one that wee have heard speak The Person therefore whom Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and the Prophets beleeved was God himself that spake unto them supernaturally And the Person whom the Apostles and Disciples that conversed with Christ beleeved was our Saviour himself But of them to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spake it cannot be said that the Person whom they beleeved was God They beleeved the Apostles and after them the Pastors and Doctors of the Church that recommended to their faith the History of the Old and New Testament so that the Faith of Christians ever since our Saviours time hath had for foundation first the reputation of their Pastors and afterward the authority of those that made the Old and New Testament to be received for the Rule of Faith which none could do but Christian Soveraignes who are therefore the Supreme Pastors and the onely Persons whom Christians now hear speak from God except such as God speaketh to in these days supernaturally But because there be many false Prophets gone out into the world other men are to examine such Spirits as St. Iohn adviseth us 1 Epistle Chap. 4. ver 1. whether they be of God or not And therefore seeing the Examination of Doctrines belongeth to the Supreme Pastor the Person which all they that have no speciall revelation are to beleeve is in every Common-wealth the Supreme Pastor that is to say the Civill Soveraigne The causes why men beleeve any Christian Doctrine are various For Faith is the gift of God and he worketh it in each severall man by such wayes as it seemeth good unto himself The most ordinary immediate cause of our beleef concerning any point of Christian Faith is that wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God But why wee beleeve the Bible to be the Word of God is much disputed as all questions must needs bee that are not well stated For they make not the question to be Why we Beleeve it but How wee Know it as if Beleeving and Knowing were all one And thence while one side ground their Knowledge upon the Infallibility of the Church and the other side on the Testimony of the Private Spirit neither side concludeth what it pretends For how shall a man know the Infallibility of the Church but by knowing first the Infallibility of the Scripture Or how shall a man know his own Private spirit to be other than a beleef grounded upon the Authority and Arguments of his Teachers or upon a Presumption of his own Gifts Besides there is nothing in the Scripture from which can be inferred the Infallibility of the Church much lesse of any particular Church and least of all the Infallibility of any particular man It is manifest therefore that Christian men doe not know but onely beleeve the Scripture to be the Word of God and that the means of making them beleeve which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily is according to the way of Nature that is to say from their Teachers It is the Doctrine of St. Paul concerning Christian Faith in generall Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing that is by Hearing our lawfull Pastors He saith also ver 14 15. of the same Chapter How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach except they be sent Whereby it is evident that the ordinary cause of beleeving that the Scriptures are the Word of God is the same with the cause of the beleeving of all other Articles of our Faith namely the Hearing of those that are by the Law allowed and appointed to Teach us as our Parents in their Houses and our Pastors in the Churches Which also is made more manifest by experience For what other cause can there bee assigned why in Christian Common-wealths all men either beleeve or at least professe the Scripture to bee the Word of God and in other Common-wealths scarce any but that in Christian Common-wealths they are taught it from their infancy and in other places they are taught otherwise But if Teaching be the cause of Faith why doe not all beleeve It is certain therefore that Faith is the gift of God and hee giveth it to whom he will Neverthelesse because to them to whom he giveth it he giveth it by the means of Teachers the immediate cause of Faith is Hearing In a School where many are taught and some profit others profit not the cause of learning in them that profit is the Master yet it cannot be thence inferred that learning is not the gift of God All good things proceed from God yet cannot all that have them say they are Inspired for that implies a gift supernaturall and the immediate hand of God which he that pretends to pretends to be a Prophet and is subject to the examination of the Church But whether men Know or Beleeve or Grant the Scriptures to be the Word of God if out of such places of them as are without obscurity I shall shew what Articles of Faith are necessary and onely necessary for Salvation those men must needs Know Beleeve or Grant the same The Vnum Necessarium Onely Article of Faith which the Scripture maketh simply Necessary to Salvation is this that JESUS IS THE CHRIST By the name of Christ is understood the King which God had before promised by the Prophets of the Old Testament to send into the world to reign over the Jews and over such of other nations as should beleeve in him under himself eternally and to give them that eternall life which was lost by the sin of Adam Which when I have proved out of Scripture I will further shew when and in what sense some other Articles may bee also called Necessary For Proof that the Beleef of this Article Iesus is the Christ is all the Faith required to Salvation my first Argument shall bee from the Scope of the Evangelists which was by the description of the life of our Saviour to establish that one